SHIFTING US POLICIES
Disqualified applicants can also obtain a waiver if there is a “compelling government interest” in them joining the military and they are “willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with the applicant’s sex”.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.
The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.
Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by Jul 1, 2017.
But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.
Trump’s controversial restrictions on transgender military service – which underwent changes in response to various court challenges – eventually came into force in April 2019 following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s top court.
Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so.
After returning to office in January, Trump issued an executive order that again took aim at transgender troops, saying: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
