WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Thursday lifted the ban on transgender troops openly serving in the United States military, prompting a fiery response from Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-AL1), a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“It is frustrating the Pentagon now has a strategy for transgender service members but they still lack an actual strategy for defeating radical Islamic terrorism,” said Byrne. “Once again it seems the Obama Administration is more interested in advancing a political agenda than they are in proposing sound policy.”
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made the controversial announcement on Thursday, saying he believes the new policy will not impact military readiness, as some critics have claimed, but will ultimately improve the overall quality of the U.S. armed services.
“The policies we’re issuing today will allow us to access talent of transgender service members to strengthen accomplishment of our mission,” said Carter. “We have to have access to 100 percent of America’s population for our all-volunteer force to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them.”
According to the Military Times, “senior military leaders will have 90 days to draw up a detailed implementation plan that will address issues that include:
☻ How the military health system will provide care to transgender troops, to include medical support for gender transitions.
☻ When a transgender service member will begin adhering to a different gender’s grooming standards and uniform-wear rules.
☻ How and when a transgender service member will transition to new physical fitness standards.
☻ When a commander should consider moving transgender soldiers into alternative barracks or berthing quarters.
☻ How unit-level commanders should address a range of issues related to deployments, job assignments and training that may arise among troops undergoing gender transition.
☻ How troops can undergo the bureaucratic process for changing their gender marker in the official Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, known as DEERS.
The Pentagon’s new transgender policy gives the military exactly one year to make preperations and begin allowing transgender recruits to sign up for volunteer service.
“As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am committed to holding the Obama Administration accountable and ensuring their political agenda does not directly harm our military readiness,” Byrne concluded.
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