President Joe Biden just fulfilled one of his key campaign promises to trans people.
Three years after then-President Donald Trump tweeted that he would order a ban on transgender service members, current President Joe Biden has ordered the Pentagon to rescind the policy during a meeting with his new secretary of defense and the joint chiefs. On Monday, Biden signed an executive order to return to a policy of trans inclusion in the armed forces — it’s similar to one first put in place by the Obama administration in 2016. “President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” reads a White House statement sent to reporters Monday, according to a HuffPost report. “This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception.” LGBTQ advocates were encouraged by the news of Biden’s swift action. “This reversal demonstrates that for the world’s largest employer, the US Defense Department, qualifications for a job should always supersede prejudice,” said Erin Uritus, CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, an LGBTQ employment advocacy group, in a statement. “This move will no doubt have reverberations across employers, many of which have invested in programs to support transgender and broader LGBTQ inclusion.” It’s difficult to count how many transgender troops are currently serving, but a 2014 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA estimated that there were about 15,500 trans individuals serving in the US military. It’s generally accepted that the US military is the largest US employer of trans people. Revoking the ban has been a core Democratic tenet since Trump first instituted it in 2017 — and Biden had promised to do so on his first day in office. Though Biden didn’t reverse the policy on day one, instead choosing to wait until Lloyd Austin was confirmed to his new position as secretary of defense by the Senate (which happened Friday), his administration has already shown its commitment to reversing Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies.
