Biden set to reverse Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in military

Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bars transgender individuals from joining the US military, dumping a ban ordered by Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office, a person briefed on the decision said.

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Biden has been widely expected to overturn the Trump policy in his early days in office. The White House could announce the move as early as Monday, according to the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The move has the support of Biden’s newly confirmed defense secretary, retired army Gen Lloyd Austin, who spoke of the need to overturn it in his Senate hearing last week.

“I support the president’s plan or plan to overturn the ban,” Austin said. “If you’re fit and you’re qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve.”

The decision comes as Biden plans to turn his attention to equity issues that he believes continue to shadow nearly all aspects of American life. Ahead of his inauguration, Biden’s transition team circulated a memo from Ron Klain, now White House chief of staff, that sketched out a plan to use Biden’s first full week as president “to advance equity and support communities of color and other underserved communities”.

The move to overturn the transgender ban is also the latest example of Biden using executive authority to dismantle Trump’s legacy. Early actions include orders to overturn a ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, stop construction of the wall at the US-Mexico border, and launch an initiative to advance racial equity.

Biden was also scheduled to hold a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony on Monday for Austin, who became the nation’s first Black defense secretary.

It was unclear how quickly the Pentagon can put a new policy in effect. Until a few years ago service members could be discharged for being transgender, but that changed during the Obama administration. In 2016, defense secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people already serving would be allowed to serve openly. The military set 1 July 2017 as the date when transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist.

After Trump took office, however, his administration delayed the enlistment date and called for additional study to determine if allowing transgender individuals to serve would affect military readiness or effectiveness.

A few weeks later, Trump caught military leaders by surprise, tweeting that the government wouldn’t accept or allow transgender individuals to serve “in any capacity”.

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he wrote.

It took nearly two years, but after a lengthy and complicated legal battle and additional reviews, the defense department in April 2019 approved the new policy that fell short of an all-out ban but barred troops and military recruits from transitioning to another sex and required most to serve in their birth gender.

As of 2019, an estimated 14,700 troops on active duty and in the Reserves identify as transgender, but not all seek treatment. Since July 2016, more than 1,500 service members were diagnosed with gender dysphoria. As of 1 February 2019, there were 1,071 serving. According to the Pentagon, the department spent about $8m on transgender care between 2016 and 2019. The military’s annual healthcare budget tops $50bn.

All four service chiefs told Congress in 2018 they had seen no discipline, morale or unit readiness problems with transgender troops. But they also acknowledged that some commanders were spending a lot of time with transgender individuals who were working through medical requirements and other transition issues.