Transgender troop ban takes effect
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2019 09:16:30 +0000
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Donald Trump’s controversial ban on transgender Americans in the military came into force on Friday following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s top court.
Trump’s administration has insisted that there is “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality’’ to allow transgender people to serve – reversing a policy enacted under his predecessor Barack Obama.
The Pentagon says the restrictions are not a blanket ban, but they would bar many if not most people who identify as transgender from enlisting, and could also impact currently serving personnel.
“This policy will ensure that the US military maintains the highest standards necessary to achieve maximum readiness, deployability, and lethality to fight and win on the battlefield,’’ the Department of Defense says on its website.
The policy – which has undergone various iterations since Trump first announced it on Twitter in July 2017 – has been widely criticized by rights activists and has been repeatedly challenged in court.