President Trump has issued an order prohibiting most transgender troops from serving in the USA military except under “limited circumstances,” UG Christian News has learnt.
The USA White House in a statement to local media on Friday said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” – those who may require substantial medical treatment, including through medical drugs or surgery – “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.”
“The new policy will allow the military to apply well-established mental and physical health standards equally to all seeking to join the U.S. armed forces,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
He added that the policy was “developed through extensive study by senior uniformed and civilian leaders, including combat veterans,” under the direction of Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Christian public policy group, in his statement to CBN News praised President Donald Trump’s decision on banning transgenders saying, it restores the readiness and the war-fighting capabilities of USA’s military to the priority that it should be.
“We’re very optimistic that this president is going to restore our military to its primary purpose: that’s not to be a laboratory for social experimentation, but rather to fight and win America’s wars.” he said.
“President Trump is moving the military away from the crippling policies of the Obama era that left our nation’s defenses at its lowest levels of readiness since before WWII. He recognizes that the last thing we should be doing is diverting taxpayer dollars from mission-critical training to funding for controversial gender reassignment surgeries and transgender sensitivity training for service members. The president is keeping his promises and advancing policies essential to keeping our military strong and our country safe,” he added.
Tim Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, also applauded Trump’s directive to disqualify transgender persons from serving in the U.S. military.
“President Trump, Secretary Mattis, and Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen have rightfully determined that military readiness takes precedence over special privileges for individuals who suffer from gender dysphoria,” he said in a statement seen by CBN News.
Elsewhere, Democrats and LGBTQ groups criticized the decision.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organisation, accused the Trump administration of pushing “anti-transgender prejudices onto the military.”
In a tweet, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called the ban “hateful” and designed to “humiliate our brave transgender members of the military who serve with honor and dignity.”
According to The Associated Press, the Pentagon has not released data on the number of transgender people serving, but a Rand Corp. study previously estimated between 1,320 and 6,630, out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.
By Staff Writer.
