Niccijade Reeves-Alhark
Staff Reporter
On Monday, January 25th, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that repealed previous President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people openly serving in the military.
This ban was initially brought up in a series of tweets by Donald Trump during his presidency in 2017. He said that after consultations with his Generals, they had come to the conclusion to not accept or allow transgender people to serve in the U.S Military, claiming that the military “...cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” This ban would end the careers of transgender military personnel if they refused to “remain their biological sex,” according to a cnn.com article by Emily Tillett. This ban was passed and was set into action April 12th, 2019, when there was about 15,000 transgender troops serving in the military at that time, according to transequality.org. The policy of the ban stated “transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria – individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery – are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.”
During his presidential campaign, according to slate.com, Biden has promised the repeal of this ban. "This is reinstating a position that the previous commanders and, as well as the secretaries, have supported. And what I'm doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform," Biden told reporters of cnn.com. He signed the executive order with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin beside him, who had shown support of this repeal in his Senate confirmation hearing that took place last week. The White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, told CNN that cases in which a transgender individual was discharged based on their gender identity would be looked into and investigated. After signing the executive order, Biden tweeted, "Today, I repealed the discriminatory ban on transgender people serving in the military,"
The overall response from the public is split, some becoming enraged while others rejoiced at the news. The signing of the executive order trended on Twitter, along with his signings of other executive orders, which concern COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 testing and federal assistance for the public.
Image Credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
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