The Trump Administration will give the Pentagon six months to enact a ban on transgender servicemen and women, first reported by the Wall Street Journal report Wednesday night. These new guidelines, which are purported to be delivered to the Pentagon in the next few days, will allow Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the ability to remove transgender individuals currently serving in the military by taking their deployability into account and determine whether these individuals can serve :war zones and participate in training. The Journal also reported that the guidelines direct the Pentagon to cease paying related medical bills for transgender men and women currently serving and to deny enlistment to transgender men and women in the future.
OutServe-SLDN, an organization that represents the U.S. LGBT military community worldwide, will be filing a lawsuit. If you are interested in joining the lawsuit, you may contact OutServe at legal@outserve-sldn.org. In addition, OutServe has created an FAQ page regarding this change in policy that can be viewed here. If you have any questions or concerns please contact our legal department at legal@outserve-sldn.org.
As of publication time, Hampton Roads’ Congressional representatives have not made any statements about this development.
