The White House announced Monday that President Joe Biden has reversed a Trump executive order which barred transgender people from serving in the military.
The White House press announcement states: “President Biden signed today an Executive Order that sets the policy that all Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve.”
Trump announced the ban in a series of 2017 tweets that reversed previous Obama administration policies on transgenders serving in the military, citing the cost of having transgender in the military.
“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,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
During his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he supports allowing transgender people to serve in the military.
In a Monday press statement, Lloyd said the department will take immediate policy actions to ensure that transgender can serve based on their “self-identified” gender.
Lloyd said that the military will authorize all “transition-related care” under pre-existing laws for transgender service people.
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