(Newswire.net — July 3, 2017) –Secretary Matiss approved a recommendation by leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to defer transgender applicants until January 1, 2018, according to a memo which media obtained.
“We will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality,” Mattis wrote in the memo.
Under the Barrack Obama administration in 2016, the Pentagon ended the ban on transgender persons being able to serve openly in the US army. It appears that the process will occur in stages as the deadline to make a decision on transgender recruits expired on July 1.
Military leaders seek more time to evaluate whether incoming service members already identifying as transgender could enlist if they have been “stable” in their gender identity for 18 months.
This six-month delay has disappointed those promoting the rights of transgender people.
“Once this important policy is implemented, it will strengthen our military by allowing qualified and talented transgender people to enlist or commission,” said Stephen Peters, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.
“Each day that passes without the policy in place restricts the armed forces’ ability to recruit the best and the brightest, regardless of gender identity, Peters wrote, adding: “We are disappointed in this needless delay because the thousands of highly trained and qualified transgender service members openly and proudly serving our nation today have proven that what matters is the ability to accomplish the mission, not their gender identity.” Peters is an ex-Marine, who was discharged under Bill Clinton’s administration, which banned openly gay people from serving in the military, CNN reports.
According to the RAND Corporation study, last year, the US military had about 2,500 transgender active-duty service members and some 1,500 reserve transgender service members.