WHITE FLAG

White House Gives Up Trans Military Ban For Now

The Pentagon will start accepting transgender recruits starting Monday.

The Trump administration will no longer try to prevent openly transgender people from joining the military, the Pentagon announced Friday night. The Trump administration previously attempted to delay a Department of Defense policy that would allow openly transgender people to join the military beginning January 1. But two federal courts struck down those efforts efforts. In a statement to Reuters, a DOJ official said that the department would not try to fight the January 1 deadline, but that the Trump administration might still try to block trans troops. "The Department of Defense has announced that it will be releasing an independent study of these issues in the coming weeks," the official said. "So rather than litigate this interim appeal before that occurs, the administration has decided to wait for DOD’s study and will continue to defend the president’s lawful authority in district court in the meantime."