Biden repeals Trump’s military transgender ban

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday ended former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, signing the executive order during an Oval Office meeting with new Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

Transgender service members will no longer be discharged and they can be identified by their preferred gender once their transition is complete and recorded in the Defense personnel system.

“America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception,” the order says. “Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country because an inclusive force is a more effective force. Simply put, it’s the right thing to do and is in our national interest.”

The order is among the flurry Biden has issued in his first days as president to dismantle Trump policies that critics have considered discriminatory.

The Trump transgender policy, put in place in 2017 with the backing of thenDefense Secretary James N. Mattis, was itself a reversal of President Barack Obama’s decision a year earlier to allow transgender troops to serve openly.

The restrictions went into effect in 2019 after two years of court challenges. They required service members and those wishing to join the military to adhere to the standards associated with their biological sex and prohibited current service members from transitioning to a different gender if they wanted to remain in the military.

Transgender recruits have been largely blocked from joining the armed forces since the Trump move. Biden, who had promised to lift the ban during his presidential campaign, told reporters at the White House that his order “is reinstating the position ... other secretaries have supported,” which allows all “qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform.”