Yahoo – AFP,
Laurent Barthelemy, 14 July 2015
Washington (AFP) - The US military will consider opening its doors to transgender people who are currently banned from service and can be booted out if discovered, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said.
Washington (AFP) - The US military will consider opening its doors to transgender people who are currently banned from service and can be booted out if discovered, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said.
The
secretary of defense made the revelation as he unveiled a working group that
will be studying the issue during the next six months.
"The
Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members
are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our
core missions" he said in a statement.
As a
result, the Pentagon "will create a working group to study over the next
six months the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons
to serve openly," he said.
In the
United States, despite the 2011 repeal of the divisive "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" law, which banned gays from serving openly, transgender people have
remained banned.
"At my
direction, the working group will start with the presumption that transgender
persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and
readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are
identified," Carter said.
"We
have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines -- real patriotic
Americans -- who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent
approach," he added.
'Step in
right direction'
Democrat
Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, applauded the
statement as a good first step.
"Incorporating
the presumption that transgender individuals can serve openly, without adverse
impact on the military effectiveness and readiness, is a step in the right
direction," he said.
"But
it is long past time that we definitively and affirmatively make it clear that
gender identity should have no bearing on an individual's ability to
serve," he added.
For House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, this includes everything from
"ensuring that service records are updated to reflect a service member's
identity, to ensuring that no one is forced to leave the service because of
that identity."
"For
transgender service members, veterans and their loved ones, this represents a
monumental step toward honoring their sacrifice, courage and strength," she
said of Carter's announcement.
There are
believed to be thousands of transgender people serving in the US armed forces,
but under the current rules, if they are discovered the military is required to
dismiss them.
"Transgender
men and women in uniform have been there with us, even as they often had to
serve in silence alongside their fellow comrades in arms," Carter said.
Chelsea
Manning, the US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to the
anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, is perhaps the best-known transgendered person
to have served in the US military -- at the time living as a male, Bradley
Manning.
Manning is
serving out a 35-year sentence at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in
Kansas for the massive leak, where she has told journalists that much of her
life has been marked by a lonely anguish over her gender identity.
The Human
Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that works for gay and transgender rights,
heralded the breakthrough.
"We
welcome and applaud the announcement by Secretary Carter that the military will
at last conduct a comprehensive review of the outdated ban that has for far too
long discriminated against qualified transgender Americans who simply want to
serve their country," said HRC President Chad Griffin, in a statement.
"The
time for ending the military's ban on transgender service is long overdue, and
we are confident that the Pentagon's review of this discriminatory policy will
find what many have come to know is true: Transgender Americans have every
right to serve their country openly and honestly, and their sense of patriotism
and duty is no less than any other service member's," Griffin said.
"Our
military and our country will be stronger when this archaic policy is finally
discarded and we look forward to that day."
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