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| FILE - In this June 5, 2013, file photo Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, then-Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after the third day of his court martial. The Associated Press has learned that Pentagon leaders are finalizing plans aimed at lifting the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. Senior U.S. officials say an announcement is expected this week. They say the military would have six months to determine the impact and work out details, with the presumption that they would end one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military service. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Pentagon leaders are finalizing plans aimed at lifting the ban
on transgender individuals in the military, with the goal of formally
ending one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military
service, senior U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
An
announcement is expected this week, and the services would have six
months to assess the impact of the change and work out the details, the
officials said Monday. Military chiefs wanted time to methodically work
through the legal, medical and administrative issues and develop
training to ease any transition, and senior leaders believed six months
would be sufficient.
The officials said
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has asked his personnel undersecretary,
Brad Carson, to set up a working group of senior military and civilian
leaders to take an objective look at the issue. One senior official said
that while the goal is to lift the ban, Carter wants the working group
to look at the practical effects, including the costs, and determine
whether it would affect readiness or create any insurmountable problems
that could derail the plan. The group would also develop uniform
guidelines.
During the six months, transgender
individuals would still not be able to join the military, but any
decisions to force out those already serving would be referred to the
Pentagon's acting undersecretary for personnel, the officials said. One
senior official said the goal was to avoid forcing any transgender
service members to leave during that time.
Several
officials familiar with the planning spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk about the issue publicly before
the final details have been worked out.
In a
statement to The Associated Press, Carter said, "we must ensure that
everyone who's able and willing to serve has the full and equal
opportunity to do so. And we must treat all of our people with the
dignity and respect they deserve. Going forward the Department of
Defense must and will continue to improve how we do both."
Some
of the key concerns involved in the repeal of the ban include whether
the military would conduct or pay for the medical costs, surgeries and
other treatment associated with any gender transition, as well as which
physical training or testing standards transgender individuals would be
required to meet during different stages of their transition.
Officials
said the military also wants time to tackle questions about where
transgender troops would be housed, what uniforms they would wear, what
berthing they would have on ships, which bathrooms they would use and
whether their presence would affect the ability of small units to work
well together. The military has dealt with many similar questions as it
integrated the ranks by race, gender and sexual orientation.
Transgender
people - those who identify with a different gender than they were born
with and sometimes take hormone treatments or have surgery to develop
the physical characteristics of their preferred gender - are banned from
military service. But studies and other surveys have estimated that as
many as 15,000 transgender people serve in the active duty military and
the reserves, often in secret but in many cases with the knowledge of
their unit commander or peers.
"Obviously this
isn't finished, but Secretary Carter's clear statement of intent means
that transgender service members should and will be treated with the
same dignity as other service members," said Allyson Robinson, Army
veteran and policy director for an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender military personnel called Service members, Partners,
and Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All, or SPARTA.
The
move follows several weeks of high level meetings in the Pentagon among
top ranking military chiefs, secretaries and Defense Department
leaders, including one on Monday involving Carter and the chiefs of the
various services.
Military leaders have
pointed to the gradual - and ultimately successful - transition after
the ban on gays serving openly in the military was lifted in 2011.
Although legislation repealing that ban passed Congress in late 2010,
the military services spent months conducting training and reviews
before the decision actually took effect the following September.
The latest Pentagon move comes just weeks after the Supreme Court upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Officials
familiar with the Pentagon meetings said the chiefs of the Army, Navy,
Marine Corps and Air Force did not express opposition to lifting the
ban. Instead, they said the military leaders asked for time to figure
out health care, housing and other questions and also to provide
information and training to the troops to insure a smooth transition.
Although
guidelines require that transgender individuals be dismissed from the
military, the services in recent months have required more senior
leaders to make the final decisions on those cases, effectively slowing
the dismissal process.
The transgender issue
came to the fore as the military struggled with how to deal with
convicted national security leaker Chelsea Manning's request for hormone
therapy and other treatment while she's in prison. Manning, arrested as
Bradley Manning, is the first transgender military prisoner to request
such treatment, and the Army approved the hormone therapy, under
pressure from a lawsuit.
Manning, is serving a
35-year sentence. The former intelligence analyst was convicted in
August 2013 of espionage and other offenses for sending more than
700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks while working in Iraq.
