By Prarthana Mitra
The US secretary of defense and homeland security on Friday followed through with President Donald Trumps controversial year-old pledge to disqualify transgender individuals from serving in the military, despite previous federal rulings against enforcing the ban. However, an outright ban has been softened by a clause in the three-page memorandum to retain or recruit transgender persons under limited circumstances.
The policy, first announced by Trump on Twitter in July 2017, has sparked outrage and backlash from all quarters, especially from LGBTQ+ rights groups, war veterans and top military personnel, a battle that is likely to continue in the coming months.
Court injunctions against the outrageous ban: Shortlived?
Despite the Trump ban, the defence department has decided to continue to “access and retain transgender individuals due to court orders.
In August 2017, Trump had formally directed the defence ministry to decide whether current transgender service members ought to be expelled based on their ability to serve in a war zone, participate in exercises or live for months on a ship by March 2018. This was challenged by a lawsuit filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, and several transgender service members, that proceeded before the US district court for Washington DC.
A January court order enabling openly trans individuals to enlist in the US military saw the first openly transgender recruit signing a contract with the military last month, a victory that was thwarted by Fridays memo.
A step back for the transgender community
Claiming 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 likely to be a financial burden, homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and defence secretary Jim Mattis also added that transgender troops present a considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.
According to the LA Times, Trump’s memo also directs the Pentagon to stop providing fresh sex-reassignment surgical procedures for military personnel.
Reactions and implications
Rescinding the Obama administrations historic repeal of the ban shortly before the end of his term, Trumps injunction now directs the Pentagon to return to the longstanding policy and practice on military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016.
What the White House has released tonight is transphobia masquerading as policy, says Joshua Block, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Unions LGBT and HIV Project. According to Block, who calls Trumps ban reckless and unconstitutional, the sole purpose of this endeavour is to undermine the ability of transgender service members to serve openly and military readiness as a whole. ACLU also tweeted,
Sarah McBride, the national press secretary with the Human Rights Campaign, calls the late and stealthy announcement cowardly and wrong. She expressed solidarity with the thousands of transgender troops who will wake up tomorrow with their lives turned upside down.
Activists and critics are confident that discriminatory policies such as these will disrupt the military, depriving it of talented people and forcing trans applicants to hide their identities. But most significantly it will reinforce the false and toxic stereotypes that the transgender community has been trying to subvert.