Mattis: Transgender Soldiers Stay Pending March Decision

AFP

by Ben Kew29 Aug 20170

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has announced he is preserving some pro-transgender policies imposed by former President Barack Obama until Pentagon deputies decide by March how to deal with serving soldiers who say they want to live as members of the other sex.

The decision seems to comply with President Donald Trump’s policy barring the recruitment of people who say they want to live as members of the other sex, and also ending the provision of free cosmetic “sex-change” surgery.

“Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning the implementation of his policy direction,” Mattis said in the August 29 statement. “In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place.”

Some opponents of the Obama policy, however, fear that Mattis and holdover Obama officials might try to torpedo Trump’s return to the recruitment of only men and women who are sexually stable.

The Mattis announcement comes days after Trump issued a directive to Mattis and the Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke reversing Obama’s policy of allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military and the U.S. Coast Guard.