The US Defence Department is expected to repeal its ban on transgender service members within weeks, Pentagon officials said on Friday, putting to rest a long and complicated debate that has stretched out for a year.
Specifics of the repeal are still under review, but the expectation among officials working on the issue is that the announcement will come by the end of next month, and possibly sooner, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Pentagon deliberations.
“Nothing has been set in stone on this,” one official said on when the repeal will happen. The expectation, however, is that it could occur as soon as next week.
The decision will put to rest a year of deliberations and mounting frustration among advocates for the ban’s repeal. US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said last July that he was establishing a working group to research transgender military service and gave it six months to carry out its mission, but the process has dragged out for close to a year.
The Pentagon’s existing policy considers transgender people to be sexual deviants, allowing the military to discharge them. The services – and later, Carter – decided last year to move that discharge authority to higher levels in the military, making it more difficult to force out transgender troops. But the lack of a new policy has created complicated situations for them and their commanders, including what to do with gender-specific uniforms, grooming rules and bathroom usage.