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Transgender troops no longer barred from service as Biden repeals policy in move to boost inclusiveness

President’s latest repeal of a Trump order draws praise from Democrats and LGTBQ activists, but criticism from some conservatives.

Transgender people are no longer barred from serving in the military after President Joe Biden repealed former President Donald Trump’s partial ban on transgender troops Monday.

“America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception,” Biden’s order says. “Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country because an inclusive force is a more effective force.”

Biden signed the new order in the Oval Office on Monday in a meeting with his new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who spoke in favor of repealing the ban during his Senate hearing last week. Austin was approved overwhelmingly with a 93-2 vote.

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The reversal, which received high praise from LGBTQ activists and Democratic lawmakers, immediately prevents soldiers from being thrown out of the military because of their gender identity and it will allow transgender troops to serve in their identified gender once it is recorded in the defense reporting system.

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But Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican who supported Trump’s order in 2017, took to Twitter to question Biden’s most recent action reversing a Trump precedent.

“Another ‘unifying’ move by the new Administration?” He asked in a tweet.

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President Barack Obama’s administration allowed transgender service members to openly serve in July of 2017, but Trump announced his intentions to reverse those protections in a tweet three years ago, saying transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military “in any capacity.”

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you,” Trump said at the time.

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A Gallup poll from 2019 found that 71% of Americans support allowing transgender people to serve in the military.

Logan Ireland, a Dallas-area native and transgender man who has served as a technical sergeant in the Air Force for close to 10 years remembers that moment “like a knife cutting really deep.”

Trump’s policy, approved in 2019, barred transgender service members and recruits from transitioning and required most members to serve in the gender they were assigned at birth. Service members, like Ireland, who had already been diagnosed with gender dysphoria under Obama’s policy were allowed to continue transitioning and serve openly with their identified gender despite the new restrictions.

“I’ve been allowed to serve as my authentic self, but there’s thousands of people like me that were in the process of joining the military that got the door shut in their face,” Ireland said.

Ever since he was 15, Drew Layne, a 20-year-old transgender man from Corpus Christi, has been fighting to join the military — joining a case with Lambda Legal to sue the Trump administration to reverse the ban at just 17.

“I put my life on hold,” Layne said. “The military was the number one thing for me and what I wanted to do with my future … and to hear that Biden repealed it definitely just shot my hopes up, and it made me feel like I have some kind of purpose now to be able to do so.”

Layne said he plans to join the Marines.

There are approximately 9,000 transgender service members, according to a workplace and gender relations survey by the Department on Defense from 2016. Another study by the University of California, Los Angeles William’s Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy from 2014 estimated over 15,000 service members are transgender.

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“The Air Force gave me purpose,” Ireland said. “I owe my entire life to the military. That’s where I met my wife, that’s where my family is able to thrive. … Having the ability to be seen as my authentic self, that’s something that I don’t take for granted, and I definitely don’t take this administration’s step lightly. This is huge. This is people’s careers and their lives we’re talking about.”

LGBTQ rights organizations were quick to applaud the decision.

“Transgender vets know better than anyone what it means to be a patriot despite living in a country that often minimizes the rich contributions that they give to society,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, an organization that seeks full equality for LGBTQ Texans. “Day in and day out, they’re so willing to serve to help protect the lives and liberties of every American.”

The Modern Military Association of America (MMAA), a national group advocating for equality for LGBTQ service members, and SPART*A, a group for transgender people in the military, put out a joint press release celebrating Biden’s order and pushing for more permanent legislation.

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“While we celebrate this momentous victory for a second time, our biggest hope is that this reversal becomes codified into law like the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, to ensure this never happens again” said Jennifer Dane, MMAA Executive Director and Air Force veteran, “Any individual qualified and capable of joining the military should have the right to serve, period.”

Some conservatives criticized Biden for putting “political correctness ahead of military readiness.

“By overturning the current policy regarding individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, the commander in chief is signaling that he is more interested in social engineering than safeguarding the health and well-being of American service members,” Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, said to The Washington Post.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston, a Republican and former Navy SEAL said he agrees that “people should serve openly and tell people what their identity is,” in an interview on Fox News.

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“I just want to see Secretary Austin stick by what he said in his testimony, which is that we will adhere to the standards that anybody that can meet those standards should be able to serve,” he said.

Texas Democrats praised Biden’s order on Twitter.

“America is strongest when everyone who is qualified and willing is able to serve,” said Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas in a tweet.

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Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee called the order “a step forward” that “will help foster diversity in our armed forces” in a tweet.

El Paso’s Rep. Veronica Escobar celebrated an end to Trump’s “hateful policy that violated American values and undermined our military readiness and national security.”

“Inclusion makes America stronger,” Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio said in a tweet.

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For Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the order was more personal.

“This policy will encourage young people like my former intern Tegan Debrock, who was kicked out of ROTC at @txst at the stroke of Trump’s pen, and like Map Pesqueira, a junior at @UTAustin, whose military scholarship was revoked,” he said in a tweet praising the order.