The White House Will Soon Issue Guidance on Banning Transgender People from The Military

The Pentagon will issue more information to the Defense Department “in the coming days” on how to proceed with the ban on transgender individuals in the military announced by President Donald Trump earlier in the summer, according to the Wall Street Journal. The guidance will reportedly include instructions to reject applications from prospective transgender members and additional information for how the thousands of transgender people already serving in the military will be affected. 

Reports of these guidelines come about a month after Trump, in a series of tweets, announced that he would be reinstating the transgender ban for the military, as CNN reported, ultimately reversing the policy set in place by the Defense Department during the Obama administration allowing transgender individuals to openly serve. At the time, he alleged that the "medical costs and disruption" of trans service members "burdened" the military (which has been thoroughly disputed and debunked.) 

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

At the time of that Twitter announcement, many were unsure of how the ban would actually work — and, with these directives, we have a better idea. As the Wall Street Journal reported, the Defense Department will be advised to reject transgender applicants and to assess the deployability of the individual service member when considering whether or not to dismiss a trans person currently serving in the military. However, CNN also reported that there will be no changes in the current policy until the Defense Department receives the White House’s guidelines, and Secretary Mattis will have six months to implement the new policy.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Defense Department said it “[had] not received formal guidance from the White House as a follow-up to the Commander-in-Chief's announcement on military service by transgender personnel.” The statement also said that the “[Defense] Department continues to focus on our mission of defending our nation and ongoing operations against our foes, while ensuring all service members are treated with respect.”

As NPR's Tom Bowman reported, Defense Secretary James Mattis' main concern is service and there's an understanding that he'll "give a lot of leeway" to keep trans members who are already serving in their jobs. Meanwhile, LGBT advocates remain vehemently against the ban in any form. 

“[Trump's] foolhardy assertion that transgender service members are not able to deploy is simply not rooted in fact," Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of The American Military Partner Association— a support network for families of LGBT service members and veterans — said in a statement. "Transgender service members are just as deployable as any other service member. These brave men and women are already risking their lives for this country around the world.”