WASHINGTON — (CNN) The Pentagon may announce as soon as Tuesday a plan to lift the ban within the next six months on transgender people openly serving in the U.S. military, a defense official tells CNN.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter may personally make the announcement under pressure from the White House following the Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage. The official said the White House has been pressing the Pentagon to move ahead to lift the ban, following the high court ruling but several top department officials have made the case time is needed to determine how several medical and legal issues will be dealt with.
The development was first reported by the Associated Press.
Members of Congress have been notified DOD will establish a working group to study policy and military readiness issues over the next six months.
The notification specifically tells Congressional members that the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without an adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness. During this six months, any personnel diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender will have their paperwork for dismissal from the military reviewed at the highest personnel levels in DOD.
Currently those in the military who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender, are not permitted to take hormones or act upon their transgender status by dressing in military uniforms or living in barracks different from their established government status.
Some of the issues Pentagon officials say they need to establish clear guidance on include: can massive hormone doses be taken in a warzone, when is a transition complete, what happens if a person decides not to go through full surgical transition, when does a person change uniforms, change barracks, what type of medical care is paid for.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, hailed the Pentagon decision.
“Transgender Americans have every right to serve their country openly and honestly, and for far too long, this discriminatory ban has robbed them of the dignity of doing so,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
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