Don’t Believe the Hype
Yesterday I saw a lot of folks sharing out the USA Today article suggesting that James Mattis is “freezing” the transgender ban in the military, a similar NY Times article picked up that narrative as well. These articles are, unfortunately, misleading.
The policy, per the original executive order, makes that clear.
The ban has three parts, it:
- Bans (openly) trans individuals from enlisting.
- Prevents the military from paying for gender reassignment surgeries.
- Directs the Secretary of Defense to complete a study assessing how to deal with active duty trans soldiers by February.
That final section specifically notes, emphasis mine:
“As part of the implementation plan, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the United States military. Until the Secretary has made that determination, no action may be taken against such individuals”
While there has been reporting indicating that the military was caught entirely off-guard by the ban, and that some senior military officials are supportive of trans folks serving (and skeptical of the policy), there is no indication that this process is being “frozen” or that Mattis or any administration officials are trying to undermine the directive. Mattis is quite literally following the order as written.
For reference, the DOD already studied this under Obama, and concluded that the military should move forward with allowing trans folks to serve.
And, as the quote I shared out yesterday underlined, even if (in the most optimistic scenario) the new DOD study suggests that some or all current service members could stay, the damage has already been done in many ways.
That’s not to say that this won’t face some serious challenges. There are already numerous lawsuits in the works, and I expect this will not be easy or clean to implement even without them. But this is the policy that is likely to persist until at least 2020 (barring major upsets in court or congress), and it sets the tone for the treatment of trans folks under this administration.