Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford said in June there would not be any change to the Pentagon’s policy regarding transgender individuals currently serving in the military.
“Let’s be clear. Transgender personnel are serving right now, and there’s no review ongoing that would affect the ability of those currently serving to continue serving, provided they can meet the physical and mental qualifications of service, be worldwide deployable and the same standards that every other soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine meets,” Dunford said at a June 19 event at the National Press Club.
Despite Dunford’s assurances, President Trump announced in a series of tweets Wednesday morning the Pentagon would no longer allow transgender individuals to serve in the military “in any capacity.”
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” the president said in a series of tweets. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”
A Pentagon spokesman deferred questions to the White House.
Trump’s tweets were an about-face from a policy implemented under the Obama administration, which announced last year transgender people already in the military can serve openly.
Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter also directed service chiefs to draft policies allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the military by July 1.
During the event at the National Press Club on June 19 — just before Carter’s deadline — Dunford said the Pentagon was addressing obstacles for accessions of transgender individuals, but stressed the Pentagon was not reversing the Obama administration’s policy of allowing transgender individuals already in the military to serve openly.
“The issue now is the challenges of accession individuals and the criteria for assessing. So that’s, there have been some issues raised with regard to challenges of assessing transgender individuals, and that’s what the secretary is reviewing,” Dunford said.
“So, this is not a reversal of the policy that was implemented before. This is the next phase of implementation was accessions and there have been some issues identified with accessions that some of the service chiefs believe need to be resolved before we move forward, and so that’s where we are right now.”
Days after Dunford’s speech, on June 30, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced implementation of the policies allowing transgender recruitment would be delayed for six months.
Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said July 18 the decision was based on disagreements on the “science of how mental care and hormone therapy for transgender individuals would help solve their medical issues that are associated with gender dysphoria.”
