I’m sure you have heard the news by now. Several people posted about it yesterday or this morning.
Let’s face it. I’ve been scooped.
After there were several instances of leaks and near leaks yesterday sharing that the Pentagon’s ban on transgender personnel was not going to survive the week, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter came out with it.
Carter issued two directives. The first one established a Pentagon working group to “study over the next six months the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly.”
At my direction, the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified.
The second directive stated that all decisions to dismiss troops with gender dysphoria would come under the purview of acting Secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness Brad Carson.