The White House has finally issued guidelines for the transgender military ban — sending a 2½-page memo to the Pentagon directing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to enact the rules within six months.
Officials familiar with the document told the Wall Street Journal that the regulations will ultimately allow Mattis to consider a service member’s ability to deploy when deciding whether to give them the boot.
They will also give the Pentagon the power to deny admittance to transgender military members — and to halt spending on medical treatment for those currently serving, the sources said.
When weighing one’s “deployability,” Mattis reportedly will be looking at their ability to not only serve in a war zone, but also whether they can participate in exercises or live for months on a ship.
According to officials, these guidelines will be the primary deciding factor.
President Trump sparked widespread outrage last month when he announced on Twitter that he would be reinstating the ban on transgender military service — which was lifted last year by the Obama administration.
Up until then, transgender soldiers had been receiving military medical care for “gender dysphoria” — a condition that is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as a medical issue.
When individuals are diagnosed, they typically are ordered to undergo transition therapy and reassignment surgery. The practice is widely considered a medically necessary treatment, WSJ reports.
Pentagon officials have been waiting patiently for policy guidance from the White House since Trump first tweeted about the issue back on July 26.
If the proposed guidelines are implemented, opponents of the military ban will surely be up in arms.
“Transgender people are just as deployable as other service members,” Sue Fulton, former president of the LGBT military organization Sparta, told the Journal.
“Other service members may undergo procedures when they are at home base, just as other service members schedule shoulder surgery or gall bladder surgery,” she said, adding that there were no “ongoing treatments” for transgender individuals that would cause them to be nondeployable.
“Thus there’s no difference between the deployability of transgender service members” and others, Fulton said.