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Ever since "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed, the US Armed Forces has had only one ban based on gender or sexuality: the one that keeps transgenders from serving.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter says this ban is "outdated". He is assembling a working group that will determine whether lifting the ban will have any impact on the Forces' combat-readiness. Carter says that the group is beginning with the assumption that trans people should be able to serve openly "without adverse effects on military readiness and effectiveness, unless and except where practical, objective impediments are identified."
His plan give branches of the Armed Forces time to work through legal, medical and administrative issues and develop training to ease transition. Senior leaders believe six months will be sufficient time for this process.
During that time, trans people still won't be allowed to join the military. However, any decisions to force out those already enlisted will be referred to Brad Carson, Carter's personnel undersecretary and the leader of the working group.
A few days ago, I compared the backlash that often follows progress to Newton's Third Law of Motion.
It seems the Armed Forces are manifesting that law again. After Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said he's open to the idea of trans people serving in the military and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James expressed her support of lifting the transgender ban, unnamed officials have expressed "concern" about allowing trans people to serve.
And what might those concerns be? Apparently, they include some of the "usual suspects", if you will:
"Much of the opposition centers on questions of where transgender troops
would be housed, 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."
Housing? Morale? Haven't we heard those questions before--about women, blacks and gays? And somehow those questions were worked out, I think.
And then there's that old familiar bugaboo--bathrooms. Ah, yes, bathrooms. They're so powerful that they're keeping the mightiest, most technologically advanced fighting force in the history of the world from doing what Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Thailand and the United Kingdom have done. Yes, all of those countries allow trans people to serve openly in their Armed Forces.
Perhaps Israel's membership in this club is most ironic of all. After all, some of the most pro-Israel lawmakers are also some of our most homophobic and transphobic.
Perhaps they can explain how it's OK for this country to help pay the salaries of transgenders in the Tzahal while keeping trans people out of our own armed forces.
Could it be that a tide is eroding discriminatory laws and policies?
(If it is, what were those laws and policies made of?)
While transgenders aren't allowed--yet--to serve in any branch of the US Armed Forces, the day we are allowed in might be in sight.
Last month, the Army approved of hormone treatments for Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier charged with divulging classified documents to WikiLeaks. Around the same time Air Force Secretary Deborah James said that she favors lifting the ban against letting transgenders serve. And Ashton Carter, the new Defense Secretary, said he is "open minded" about transgender troops, adding that whether or not a person can serve should be based on nothing more than his or her ability to serve. According to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, President Obama endorsed Carter's comments.
Now the Army has issued a directive saying to protect transgender soldiers from being dismissed by mid-level officers. Instead, the decision to discharge is placed in the hands of the service's top civilian for personnel matters.
In essence, it means that any officer would have to explain his or her decision to discharge a transgender soldier to a high-ranking civilian leader. Most officers would be reluctant to do that, as it can be damaging to their careers.
What's interesting is that the Army is doing essentially the same thing the Pentagon did when it was backing away from "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": It required a review, by the Department of Defense's top lawyer and service secretaries, of decisions to discharge gay and lesbian soldiers. As a result, no more gay and lesbian soldiers were dismissed and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was overturned.
The times, they are a-changing.
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