Donald Trump just banned most transgender people from the military

President Donald Trump has moved to ban most transgender people from the military.

In an announcement which has outraged activists, Trump stated that “transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria… are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.”

The statement, released through the White House, claimed that the policy was “developed through extensive study by senior uniformed and civilian leaders”.

(Getty)

The White House also revealed a memo sent to Trump by Defence Secretary James Mattis last month, in which Mattis said there were “substantial risks” associated with trans servicepeople.

The Defence Secretary said that permitting some of them to serve would mean exempting them from a series of mental, physical and sex-based standards.

He added that it “could undermine readiness, disrupt unit cohesion, and impose an unreasonable burden on the military that is not conducive to military effectiveness and lethality.”

Defence Secretary James Mattis (Getty)

Mattis’s conclusions – which Trump has agreed with – stated that trans people will be allowed to serve “if they have been stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to our accession”.

He continued: “Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria after entering into service may be retained if they do not require a change of gender and remain deployable [within] applicable retention standards”.

And Mattis added that “currently serving service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria since the previous administration’s policy took effect and prior to the effective date of this new policy, may continue to serve in their preferred gender and receive medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria.”

(Getty)

But, he wrote, those who “require or have undergone” gender confirmation surgery would be “disqualified from military service.”

If there were trans people who had not experienced gender dysphoria, they would be allowed to join the military, he said, but would be required to serve as “their biological sex.”

• Nov 29

56 celebrities you didn’t know are gay, bisexual or lesbian