President Donald Trump has erased former President Barack Obama’s late-term imposition of the transgender ideology on the U.S. military.
The decision likely will boost military effectiveness and also help Americans defend their two-sex, male-and-female society from pro-transgender lawyers and judges.
“I am directing the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the U.S. Coast Guard, to return to the longstanding policy and practice on military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016,” Trump said in a Friday afternoon statement.
Trump’s restoration of the pre-Obama policies also bars funds from being used for sex-related cosmetic surgery. It directs officials to:
halt all use of DoD or DHS resources to fund sex‑reassignment surgical procedures for military personnel, except to the extent necessary to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex.
The directive complements a recent decision by the Department of Justice reversing Obama’s claim that existing sexual discrimination laws also bar unfair treatment of people who say they have an opposite-sex “gender identity.” This legal shift means that pro-transgender lawyers will be unable to claim in court that the federal government believes that the sex-discrimination laws support the transgender claim that a person’s legal sex is determined by their “gender identity” rather than by their male-or-female biology.
However, the short policy statement does not formally say that each soldier’s sex is determined by their biology. That silence may allow holdover Obama officials to quietly maintain Obama’s pro-transgender policy which accepted the transgender political claim soldiers should be allowed to switch their legal sex in military personnel records by declaring they have an opposite-sex “gender identity.”
Trump’s directive does give Pentagon officials time to clear up the complications caused by the short-lived Obama policy. For example, the policy says:
As part of the implementation plan, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the United States military. Until the Secretary has made that determination, no action may be taken against such individuals under the policy set forth in section 1(b) of this memorandum.
The policy also includes language to frustrate pro-transgender lawsuits, saying:
If any provision of this memorandum, or the application of any provision of this memorandum, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this memorandum and other dissimilar applications of the provision shall not be affected.
However, the policy also allows the Pentagon chief to push for the return of Obama’s pro-transgender policy, saying “the Secretary of Defense, after consulting with the Secretary of Homeland Security, may advise me at any time, in writing, that a change to this policy is warranted.”
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, welcomed the return to the pre-Obama, normal policy:
“President Trump is doing what he promised: putting the military’s focus where it belongs – fighting and winning wars. Political correctness doesn’t win wars — and the president is ending policies that pretend it does.
Monday night the president rightfully praised our service men and women for their ‘shared mission’ and ‘shared purpose’ of defending our nation and freedom. President Trump is listening to their concerns about distractions that hinder their mission – and now he is acting to address them. The guidance released today reflects those conversations, and prioritizes military readiness while also showing respect for those who currently serve and identify as transgender.
Pro-transgender groups and individuals tweeted their opposition to Trump’s reform.
Advocates for transgenderism say each person’s legal sex is determined by their chosen “gender identity,” not their biology. These advocates also argue that the federal and state government must support people who say they are “transgender” by requiring other people to treat them as members of the opposite sex and to refer to them with opposite-sex pronouns.
In contrast, polls show that most Americans want to conserve their two-sex society, in which laws and civic practices are intended to help the two equal sexes manage their different and complementary biology-influenced desires and capabilities.
The “gender identity” claims have a growing impact on the operation of different-sex bathrooms, shelters for battered women, sports leagues for girls, hiking groups for boys, K-12 curricula, university speech codes, religious freedoms, free speech, the social status of women, parents’ rights in childrearing, practices to help teenagers, women’s expectations of beauty, culture and civic society, scientific research, prison safety, civic ceremonies, school rules, men’s sense of masculinity, law enforcement, and children’s sexual privacy.
Polls show that roughly one-quarter of Americans support the progressive claim that biological sex is less important that chosen “gender identity,” despite intense media pressure in favor of the pro-transgender, anti-sexes campaign.
There are very few “transgender” people. For example, advocates say from 1,320 t0 11,000 people in the military are trying fully or partly to live like members of the other sex, within the military population of 1.3 million full-time soldiers, sailors, marines and air force personnel. Fewer than o.3 percent of Americans wish to live as members of the opposite sex.
Trump’s formal opposition to the transgender ideology is pushing Democrats to make their unpopular transgender ideology an issue in the 2018 elections. However, Obama has said twice that his 2016 support for the ideology helped contribute to Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the presidential election.