Military readiness should be the deciding factor.
The legal fight over transgender troops and a proposed Pentagon policy barring many from service is not an issue of civil rights, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said on Thursday.
Milley told a Senate committee that soldiers voluntarily give up some civil rights when they enlist and that instead the transgender debate should be focused on standards that make the Army more effective.
“It is important that this 1 percent who wear this uniform and the clothe of our country, we’re giving up certain civil rights so the other 99 percent can retain their civil rights. We know that, we do it willingly and volunteer to do it,” he said during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “So, this is not an issue, with respect to transgenders, this is not an issue in my view, this is not a civil rights issue.”[…]
“This is an issue of standards and maintaining the deployability and the combat effectiveness and the lethality of the United States Army, and I think I speak for the other service chiefs as well,” Milley said.
The proposed transgender policy is on hold as the Trump administration battles active-duty transgender troops and rights groups in federal district court. Four federal judges have granted temporary injunctions blocking any policy change.
The Pentagon’s 44-page review of existing transgender research that was used to justify rolling back the Obama administration’s policy of open service is drawing increasing criticism from medical groups and Democrats in Congress for its conclusions about treatment of gender dysphoria. The condition is common among transgender people and is characterized by unhappiness or anxiety about a current gender.