Nancy Pelosi rips Trump’s ‘hateful’ transgender troop ban

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., condemned President Trump’s “hateful ban” after the administration unveiled a new policy that will bar most transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military.

“This latest memorandum is the same cowardly, disgusting ban the President announced last summer. No one with the strength and bravery to serve in the U.S. military should be turned away because of who they are,” Pelosi wrote in a statement Friday.

“The President’s hateful ban is purpose-built to humiliate our brave transgender members of the military who serve with honor and dignity,” she added. “It will harm our nation’s readiness and hollow out our strength, for we only strengthen our military by honoring our values of freedom and equality.”

Last August, Trump tweeted that transgender troops would be prohibited from serving in the military in “any capacity.” The tweets were followed by a directive that ordered the military to “return to the longstanding policy and practice of military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016.”

However, Trump rescinded the order and approved a new policy that included suggestions of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, which allows transgender individuals to serve that have not yet transitioned or been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

“The policies set forth by the secretary of defense state that transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery — are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances,” Trump wrote in a memo to Mattis on Friday.

Mattis argued in a memo Friday that permitting transgender individuals to serve would “undermine readiness, disrupt unit cohesion, and impose an unreasonable burden on the military that is not conducive to military effectiveness and lethality.”

According to a 2016 Rand Corp. study, there are approximately 1,320 to 6,630 transgender troops in the military, but the Pentagon has said it does not know how many are actually serving.

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