Pentagon to begin enlistment of transgender recruits next month

Pentagon has announced that it will begin enlistment of transgender recruits on Jan. 1, amid ongoing legal battles challenging President Donald Trump's order banning transgender individuals from the military.

According to The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly had ruled against Trump's ban in October and ordered the military to start accepting transgender recruits starting next year.

The government had asked Kollar-Kotelly to put the Jan. 1 date on hold while they appeal her full ruling, but the judge denied the request.

"In sum, having carefully considered all of the evidence before it, the court is not persuaded that Defendants will be irreparably injured by allowing the accession of transgender individuals into the military beginning on January 1, 2018," she stated in an opinion on Monday.

Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the transgenders will be allowed to enlist starting next month amid legal battles. The Defense Department is also conducting a study, which is expected to carry into 2018. The Pentagon has indicated that it is still working on appealing the order.

According to Eastburn, the new guidelines will allow the Pentagon to disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a condition associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. However, such recruits will be accepted if a medical provider certifies that they have been clinically stable in their preferred sex for 18 months and are not experiencing significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.

The requirements mirror the concerns that were raised when the Pentagon initially lifted the ban on transgender service members last year under President Barack Obama's administration.

"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," Eastburn said.

Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center, which has conducted research on sexual minorities in the military, said that the 18-month period is fair because it is consistent with the same standards that are applied to all medical conditions.

Similar restrictions are also in place for recruits with a variety of medical or mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder.

Trump announced his decision to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military in July, prompting five service members to challenge the ban in court. The Pentagon's decision to allow transgenders to enlist has been seen as a sign of a growing sense within the government that the 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. That's really where the controversy will lie," said Brad Carson, who has worked for former Defense Secretary Ash Carter as the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel.

Carson said that the policy requiring 18 months of stability is reasonable, although he noted experts have suggested that six months is enough.

"It doesn't have any basis in science," he said. "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," he added.