Transgender people are finally allowed to enlist in the US army
Trans people were allowed to enlist in the army from yesterday (January 1)
Transgender people are now allowed to enlist in the US army.
Trans people were permitted to enlist from yesterday (January 1) after Donald Trump’s administration decided not to appeal against a block on his controversial ban.
Last week, two federal appeals courts, one in Washington and another in Virginia, rejected the administration’s request to put orders by lower court judges to accept trans recruits on hold.
A justice Department official said: “The Department of Defense has announced that it will be releasing an independent study of these issues in the coming weeks.
“So rather than litigate this interim appeal before that occurs, the administration has decided to wait for DOD’s study and will continue to defend the president’s lawful authority in District Court in the meantime.”
Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for LGBT advocacy group GLAD, told the Mirror that the administration’s decision not to appeal was “great news.”
“I’m hoping it means the government has come to see that there is no way to justify a ban and that it’s not good for the military or our country.”
Trump had announced the ban on Twitter in July last year and said he would prohibit transgender people from serving in the military, reversing President Barack Obama’s policy of accepting them.
The proposed ban barred transgender individuals from joining the military, and made standing service personnel subject to discharge if they were revealed to be transgender.
The Trump administration previously claimed in legal papers that the armed forces weren’t prepared to train thousands of personnel on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants.