It was nearly a decade ago when the Obama administration ended an existing ban on transgender Americans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in June 2016 that transgender service members are “talented and trained Americans who are serving their country with honor and distinction.”
Donald Trump disagreed. In fact, around this time eight years ago, the Republican president announced he was rolling back the clock and undoing the Obama-era progress. Asked to defend his discriminatory policy, Trump not only struggled, he also seemed confused about the substantive details of his own actions.
After Trump lost his re-election bid, Joe Biden reversed the reversal and restored the protections for transgender service members. When the Republican returned to power once more, he re-imposed the restrictions from his first term.
As part of the incumbent president’s policy, there isn’t just a ban on transgender Americans volunteering to put their lives on the line for their country, there’s also an effort to identify transgender Americans who are already serving — and kick them out of the military.
It’s against this backdrop that Reuters reported:








