Biden clears the way for transgender troops

During the Trump administration, the military treated gender dysphoria as a serious medical condition that affected someone’s ability to serve. An April 2019 Department of Defense policy grandfathered in some transgender troops but required most members of the military to live and work as their biological sex. An executive order signed Monday by President Joe Biden reversed that policy and said service members may serve in their preferred gender once their transition is complete and recorded in the defense reporting system.

How will this affect military readiness? “If you’re fit and you’re qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at his recent confirmation hearing. It’s unclear how the military will apply standards of readiness to people who want to be treated and viewed as the opposite sex or who are undergoing intensive sex-change treatments.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Kiley Crossland’s report in Relations on the Trump administration’s transgender troop policy.