Defense Secretary Ash Carter has comissioned a six-month long study in order to formally bring an end to one of the last gender or sexuality-based barriers to military service, saying that the Pentagon's existing regulations, which prohibits transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, are outdated and need to be examined, according to The Associated Press.
"The Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions," Carter said on Monday. "At a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most important qualification for service members should be whether they're able and willing to do their job, our officers and enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them the opposite," Carter continued, according to Fox News.
Carter said he was creating a working group that will study the policies and ascertain whether the lifting of the transgender ban would affect the military's competence. The study group will begin with the assumption that transgender individuals should be able to serve openly "without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified."
The six-month long study would give services sufficient time to meticulously work through the legal, medical and administrative issues and develop training to facilitate any transition.
Some of the issues that need to be reviewed include: the amount of hormone doses that can be taken on the battlefield, how long it takes for a transition to complete, what happens if an individual decides not to go through full surgical transition, when a person changes uniforms or changes barracks and what type of medical care is paid for, among other issues, CNN reported.
The announcement comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which is the country's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, welcomed the Pentagon's decision. "Transgender Americans have every right to serve their country openly and honestly, and for far too long, this discriminatory ban has robbed them of the dignity of doing so," said HRC President Chad Griffin, according to CNN.
