Pentagon says transgender troops will be able to enlist in military next month despite Trump's opposition

Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical and medical criteria to join

In 2016, a policy established by the Obama administration allowed transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces (Getty Images)

The Pentagon will allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning on 1 January, despite President Donald Trump's opposition.

The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue, and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Mr Trump's demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban. Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.

Major David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the enlistment of transgender recruits will start next month and go on amid the legal battles. The Defense Department also is studying the issue.

Major Eastburn told The Associated Press that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they have been clinically stable in the preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.

Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy also must be stable on their medication for 18 months.

The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Barack Obama's administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.

The Pentagon has similar restrictions for recruits with a variety of medical or mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder.

“Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,” Major Eastburn said.

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban on transgender service members, allowing them to serve openly in the military. He said that within 12 months — or by July 2017 — transgender people also would be able to enlist.

Mr Trump, however, tweeted in July that the federal government “will not accept or allow” transgender troops to serve “in any capacity” in the military. A month later, he issued a formal order telling the Pentagon to extend the ban. He gave the department six months to determine what to do about those currently serving.

Mr Trump's decision was quickly challenged in court, and two US district court judges have already ruled against the ban. Part of one ruling required the government to allow transgender individuals to enlist beginning 1 January 2018.

The government had asked that the 1 January requirement be put on hold while the appeal proceeds. The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.

“The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it's going to be on what terms,” said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration's decisions. “That's really where the controversy will lie.”

Mr Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but “under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.” Mr Carson, who worked for Mr Carter as the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.

“It doesn't have any basis in science,” he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. “But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that's a reasonable position and defensible.”

Associated Press