The U.S. military is returning to the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies, said troops and LGBT+ groups, as new rules that will ban most openly transgender people from serving came into effect on Friday.
They said the new policy would force trans military members to choose between transition and their job and result in increased stigma and mental health issues.
"With the implementation of this transgender military ban, our nation is once again shamefully forcing brave American heroes to hide who they are in order to serve," said Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partner Association.
"By dragging us backward into the dark days of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' the Trump-Pence administration is inflicting tremendous harm on our service members, their families, and the military as a whole." Read more via Reuters
BREAKING DOWN THE MARCH 23, 2018 TRANSGENDER MILITARY BAN
Bottom Line The stated rationale for the ban depends on scientific distortions that the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association condemned immediately. Echoing the prior “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, transgender troops will be forced to leave the military or to serve in silence, fearing that expressing any form of distress could mark them as unfit.
The Documents
On March 23, 2018, the Trump administration released three documents related to implementation of its transgender military ban:
• a 44-page Department of Defense Report and Recommendations on Military Service by Transgender Persons (the Report);
• a 3-page memorandum from Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Military Service by Transgender Individuals, adopting the recommendations of the Report; and
• a 2-page memorandum from President Trump, Military Service by Transgender Individuals, revoking his prior memorandum of August 25, 2017 on the subject and passing authority to the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security (Coast Guard) to implement policy according to the Report and the Secretary of Defense memo.
Number of Transgender Service Members
The DOD Report says that there are 8,980 serving transgender troops in the Active Component (Report at 7). The Palm Center soon will release a report estimating that an additional 5,727 transgender troops serve in the Selected Reserve, and that the total number of currently serving troops is therefore 8,980 + 5,727 = ~14,700. This estimate of 14,700 is the first-ever estimate based on official DOD data