No issues with transgender troops in Army ranks, service leaders say

The presence of transgender troops within the Army’s ranks has caused no issues regarding unit cohesiveness or combat capability, the service’s top non-commissioned officer said Friday.

“I personally have not had any issues or concerns” over the impact openly transgender troops serving in Army units have on current or future operations, Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey said during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Sgt. Maj. Dailey was part of the Defense Department task force reviewing the effects of transgender troops in the armed forces late last year. That said, service leaders have worked tirelessly to develop a set of standards and processes to ensure all service members — transgender or not — meet all military codes and standards.

“This is a tough thing to deal with and we do not want to make any mistakes,” he said regarding the military’s standing policy in dealing with transgender service members. Army Secretary Mark Esper, who spoke alongside Sgt. Maj. Dailey during Friday’s briefing declined to weigh in on the issue, noting that a number of federal courts have yet to issue their decisions on the matter.

His comments echo those of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, who told Congress earlier this week that they had not seen any issues arise within their services over the presence of transgender sailors or Marines.

The Navy and Marine Corps treat “every one of those Navy sailors regardless with dignity and respect that is warranted by wearing the uniform of the United States Navy,” Adm. Richardson told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. “By virtue of that approach, I’m not aware of any issues,” the four-star admiral added.

Their comments come days after Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the Senate defense panel the debate over transgender individuals in uniform was not one of civil rights, but one of military readiness.

“This is an issue of standards and maintaining the deployability and the combat effectiveness and the lethality of the United States Army, and I think I speak for the other service chiefs as well,” Gen. Milley said.

The services continue to operate under the Obama-era policy of allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military, as the Trump White House is pressing to ban all transgender people from military service.

Mr. Trump announced plans to ban all transgender citizens from enlisting and separating all transgender troops currently in uniform in January. The announcement came as Mr. Mattis was in the midst of a six-month review of the previous administration’s policy. Federal courts have barred the administration from instituting the new policy, pending judicial review on the constitutionality of the order.

Transgendered recruits were allowed to enlist beginning Jan. 1 after being subjected to a slew of physical, psychological and medical requirements before being considered for military service, pending the release of the military’s recommendations to the White House.

The new standards for transgendered enlistment include certification that a recruit has been deemed “clinically stable” in their preferred gender expression for 18 months, and do not suffer from marked stress or impairment tied to their selected gender during certain scenarios tied to military service.

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter formally lifted the ban on transgendered citizens serving openly in the U.S. military last year. Since then, the issue has become a cultural touchtone between proponents of the ban who argue the military has been repeatedly subjected to progressive social engineering efforts. Opponents of the ban say the exclusion of transgender troops violates those individuals’s civil rights.