Biden Lifts Ban on Transgender People Serving in the Military, Reversing Trump’s Policy

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and one of the attorneys who led the challenge to the military ban in court, said the order “marks the end of the most serious threat to the legal equality of transgender people in our nation’s history.”

“marks the end of the most serious threat to the legal equality of transgender people in our nation’s history.”

“It was literally the federal government telling the world that transgender people are mentally unstable, unfit,” Minter said, adding that military service has long been considered a cornerstone for equal citizenship in the United States. “We will look back on this as the beginning of a real turning point in the struggle of transgender legal equality.”

While Trump and military officials argued that barring transgender service members would improve readiness, a recently published study from the Palm Center, a research institute that studies LGBTQ personnel issues in the military, said the ban shrank the military’s recruiting pool and lowered morale among transgender troops.

President Biden on Monday signed an executive order reversing the previous administration’s steps to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military, fulfilling a campaign promise to establish more inclusive rules for American service members.

Biden “believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” a White House statement said. “This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception.”

“This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception.”

The decision effectively repeals a 2019 Defense Department order that imposed tight limits on service by transgender troops, permitting them only if they hadn’t been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, hadn’t transitioned sex and didn’t need to, and could meet standards for their biological gender including for grooming and uniforms. Those rules, which followed a Twitter proclamation by President Donald Trump in 2017, reversed earlier policies issued by the Obama administration.

Activists said the Trump-era rules amounted to a ban on transgender personnel, who are believed to number close to 15,000 in the military.

“It was ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ for transgender troops,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, which has advocated for lifting the ban, making reference to rules against gay and lesbian troops from discussing their sexual orientation. “Effectively it forced them to serve in silence.”

At his confirmation hearing, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he supported the repeal.

The Pentagon has not made public any statistic on how many transgender troops may have left the military since the 2019 order took effect.

The transgender military ban was one of a series of moves by the Trump administration to erase protections for transgender people, including in health care, federal employment, homeless shelters and other housing services receiving federal funds. The Trump administration also rescinded Obama-era guidance that protected transgender students, and declared that federal Title IX rules require schools to ban transgender students from participating in school sports corresponding to their gender identity.

In sharp contrast, Biden has vowed to pursue an ambitious agenda on LGBTQ issues, and has already issued a sweeping executive order clarifying that gay and transgender people are protected against discrimination in schools, health care, the workplace and other realms of American life. He also nominated as his assistant secretary of health Rachel Levine, who would become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.