The Navy is considering policy changes for how it deals with transgender sailors, following similar changes underway in the Air Force and Army.
The Navy’s modified policy will likely include elevating any potential dismissal of a sailor to at least the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, according to a Navy official who requested anonymity.
The Defense Department’s current policy prevents all transgender service members from openly serving, but in recent months both the Army and the Air Force have announced policy modifications that require each individual case be provided a high-level review. On Thursday, the Navy indicated it is following suit.
“The Navy is looking to elevate the administrative separation authority for transgendered personnel to ensure that this important issue receives the right level of review,” Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Ed Early said.
Early said while the policy would affect Navy personnel, he did not know if it would extend to the Marine Corps, which is part of the Navy Department. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Marine Corps late Thursday for comment but none was immediately available.
At present, sailors who are discovered to be transgender are administratively separated from the military.
For an enlisted person, that process requires only a commanding officer’s recommendation; for officers, their cases are elevated to at least the Navy’s assistant secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
The Navy’s proposed change comes amid significant moves within the Pentagon to have its policies more closely reflect the tolerance of the young millennial generation that it seeks to recruit and retain as its future force.
At an event at the Pentagon Tuesday celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that sexual orientation would be added to its anti-discrimination policy.
Gay and lesbian service members have been allowed to serve openly since President Obama repealed the 17-year-old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy in 2011. The change announced Tuesday officially elevates sexual preference to the same protected status as race, gender, religion, nationality and age for men and women in uniform.
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However, servicemen and women who identify as transgender — identifying as one sex biologically but as another internally — were not part of the new status. Instead, each of the services has been making smaller steps to add new levels of protection for its transgendered service men and women.
