The Defense Department is taking steps to receive transgender recruits into the ranks as soon as January 1, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
“The Deputy Secretary of Defense and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supported by a panel of experts will propose consideration recommendations supported by appropriate evidence and information for the accession of transgender persons into the military,” US Army Maj. Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a written statement.
Just last month, a second federal judge blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the military, which was announced in August.
Judge Marvin Garbis in Maryland wrote in a 53-page ruling last month that currently serving transgender service members were “already suffering harmful consequences” and prohibited the administration “from blocking those challenging the ban from completing their medically necessary surgeries.”
Another federal judge had blocked portions of Trump’s directive in October.
In his statement Wednesday, Eastburn said the panel, which would operate per the recent court rulings, will issue findings based on “multiple considerations including military effectiveness and lethality, budgetary constraints, and applicable law.”
Shortly after Trump’s directive in August, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he would work with a panel of experts to recommend how the military should put the administration’s transgender guidance into effect.
Once that panel concludes, Mattis will provide his advice to Trump on how to implement his policy direction. That new policy is expected to be announced by March.