The Fate of Transgender soldiers in the United States military
By Jeyleani M. Sanchez, CAS ‘20
The question of who should be allowed to serve in the United States military is one long contested. In the late 1800s it was whether or not African Americans should officially be allowed to join the, then, Union Army. The early 1900s was when – due to necessity – women were allowed to serve in the army, during World War I as nurses and secretaries and finally during the Truman administration they were allowed to serve as regular and reserve troops. During the 1990s under the Clinton administration there was the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy banning openly lesbians, gays and bisexuals from serving in the military. For the almost a decade and a half, the question of who should serve in the military had not been raised until December 2010 when former President Obama repealed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Act and then again in June 2016 he announced that openly transgender individuals would be allowed to serve in the military. One of President Trump’s focuses thus far in his presidency is the effectiveness of the United States Armed Services and how to improve them and so the issue continues to be in the focus of the media.
On August 25th, 2017 President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum called “Military Service by Transgender Individuals” extending the transgender soldier ban in the United States Military. The ban on transgender soldiers had been lifted during the last year of the Obama administration; however, there was a deadline of July 2017 to determine if transgender individuals whom had never served could enter the military service. United States Defense Secretary General Jim Mattis extended this deadline until January 2018, however with President Trump’s memorandum the time limits have shifted to a month more – that is the deadline that the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security have to “provides a recommendation to the contrary that I [President Trump] find convincing” or provides a plan that outlines the steps to improve the military while keeping budgetary constraints in mind.
According to President Trump and others that are in favor of the memorandum the purpose of this is to allocate more money towards the weapons, materials, and lethality of the military to increase the chances of a successful warfare while also decreasing the “disruption of unit cohesion”. Under Article II of the Constitution it states that the President of the United States is given the position of the Commander in Chief of the United States military ; President Trump – in his memorandum – states that under Article II he can direct the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security to follow his directive of establishing a way to improve the military while banning transgender individuals from joining the army. The question at the moment is what will happen to the transgender individuals that are already enlisted in the military and that under President Obama’s administration openly expressed that they were transgender. President Trump believes that by doing this he will be rectifying problems that according to him were sorely ignored during the Obama administrations. To make sure that at least some part of his directive would go through, President Trump included Section 4 of the memorandum stating that if one part of the directive were found to be invalid the rest of the memorandum would not be affected. President Trump only wrote in his memorandum that no new recruits could be transgender, however, all those that are currently enlisted will no longer have their sex reassignments covered by the United States military.
There are arguments made against President Trump’s ability to make such a directive towards a portion of the military and those that would wish to enlist. One of the biggest arguments against the directive is a claim that this is discrimination towards the transgender community in the United States. Discrimination, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the “prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment”. Those that have taken this approach claim that the President is being prejudiced towards a specific group within the United States military and the population in general. Within President Trump’s own party there are those that oppose the directive; Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah gave a quote to USA Today saying, “I don’t think we should be discriminating against anyone. Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.” Another counter-argument for the directive is that it is against the Equal Protection Act found in the 14th Amendment; it states that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” By denying transgender individuals from serving in the military the state – in this case the United States as a whole – is infringing on their rights guaranteed as American citizens to serve.
Ultimately, the directive has already been set in motion and the outcome of it hinges on the ability or inability of the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to convince President Trump on their plan to improve the conditions of the United States armed services by February 21st, 2018 or President Trump’s directive will go into full effect March 23rd, 2018.
Altmire, Jason. "H.R.2965 – 111th Congress (2009-2010): Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010." Congress.gov. December 22, 2010. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/2965.
Cronk, Terri Moon. "Transgender Service Members Can Now Serve Openly, Carter Announces." U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. June 30, 2016. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/822235/transgender-service-members-can-now-serve-openly-carter-announces/.
"Statement by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Military Service by Transgender Individuals" U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. August 29, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1294351/statement-by-secretary-of-defense-jim-mattis-on-military-service-by-transgender/.
"Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security." The White House. August 25, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/25/presidential-memorandum-secretary-defense-and-secretary-homeland.
Ibid.
"The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription." National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript.
"Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security." The White House. August 25, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/25/presidential-memorandum-secretary-defense-and-secretary-homeland.
Ibid.
"Discrimination." Merriam-Webster. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discrimination.
Estepa, Jessica. "Sen. Orrin Hatch: 'Transgender people are people and deserve the best we can do for them'." USA Today. July 26, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/07/26/sen-orrin-hatch-transgender-people-people-and-deserve-best-we-can-do-them/512333001/
"The Constitution: Amendments 11-27." National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27.