Ending transgender ban fortifies US military might

On practical, tactical and philosophical fronts, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter acted wisely and responsibly recently to formally end this nation’s ban on transgender individuals from serving openly in our armed forces.

Opening enlistment of transgender Americans into the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard represents another important and logical step in this nation’s expanding march toward full equality for all.

The Department of Defense policy revision announced June 30 establishes a construct by which service members may transition gender while serving, sets standards for medical care and outlines responsibilities for military services and commanders to develop and implement guidance, training and specific policies in the short and long term.

“This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force,” Carter said. “We’re talking about talented Americans who are serving with distinction or who want the opportunity to serve. We can’t allow barriers unrelated to a person’s qualifications prevent us from recruiting and retaining those who can best accomplish the mission.”

On practical grounds, the policy change simply acknowledges a long-standing truism: transgender Americans do serve and have served capably in our armed forces for decades. A study by the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law in 2014 estimated that approximately 15,500 transgender individuals are either serving on active duty or in the guard or reserve forces within the U.S. military.

On tactical grounds, ending the ban opens the door to a whole new set of skilled servicemen and servicewomen at a time when the all-volunteer military has been shrinking in ranks. The Army, for example, is projected to lose 40,000 troops by 2017 alone.

Considering that the United States today faces a host of very real threats to its own stability and to global security, expanding the base of potential fighting men and women makes eminently good military sense.

END TO DISCRIMINATION

On philosophical grounds, opening service to transgender Americans closes yet another chapter of explicit discrimination in our military code and our national identity. As we pointed out in our Independence Day editorial last week, the inclusion of transgenders into the nation’s 2 million strong armed forces advances our country closer to a more-perfect union based on the founding fathers’ ideals of liberty and justice for all.

Ending the ban also represents a logical extension of the military’s removal in 2011 of the much-maligned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy toward gay and lesbian soldiers and to Carter’s December 2015 announcement that all military occupations and positions – including combat roles – now will be open to women, without exception.

Collectively, those policy changes have broadened the foundation of military prowess and strengthened U.S. military might. In so doing, the nation has endorsed and extended the inclusionary principles upon which the nation was founded.

Some, however, prefer to cling to the doctrine of exclusion.

U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called lifting the ban on transgenders the latest example of the Pentagon’s and Commander in Chief Barack Obama’s “prioritizing politics over policy.”

From our vantage point, politics should shape policy. Politics, after all, in its unbiased and unvarnished definition, means the process of making uniform decisions applying equally to all members of a group. Making military eligibility more uniform and inclusive for all citizens of our country therefore builds sound policy and politics.

Consider, too, the vocal opposition of Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Regarding the end of the ban, he has lambasted the chief executive thusly: “This is yet another example of President Obama using America’s military to fight culture wars instead of to fight real wars against the enemies of our nation.”

We beg to differ. If indeed it is a culture war, it is one that we are winning by recognizing that our American culture is diverse and that all U.S. citizens regardless of race, creed, color or sexual identity deserve the opportunity to courageously fight common enemies and, in so doing, strengthen America’s defenses.