25 August, 2017
According to the Wall Street Journal, the memo from the White House is a "two-and-a-half-page document", where it gives the Pentagon directing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis a full six months to implement the rules regarding the transgender ban in the military.
President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order to give the Defense Department the authority to expel transgender people from the military, bar the Pentagon from recruiting transgender troops and cut off funds for sex-reassignment surgery and other medical treatments for those already serving.
The directive was confirmed on Wednesday by a government official familiar with its contents but who was not authorised to discuss its details, the Times reported.
Mattis is expected to consider "deployability" - meaning the ability to serve in a war zone, participate in exercises or live for months on a ship - as the main legal reason to decide whether to separate service members from the military, the Journal reported.
Five transgender members of the USA military including Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans sued Trump earlier this month, saying that the ban was made without consulting senior military commanders.
Duckworth, who served in Iraq and received a Purple Heart for her service, called Trump's transgender military ban "discriminatory".
The Obama administration, which ended the transgender ban in 2016, allowed now serving transgender personnel to immediately begin serving openly but set July 1, 2017, as the start of new enlistments by openly transgender people.
Transgender ban: a great favor to the United States?
Trump's decision was roundly denounced by members of both parties, many of whom argued that people willing and able to fight for their country should be welcomed into the military.
"This is NOT how you keep America safe", Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, said in a Twitter post.
According to various sources, the White House wants to block transgender people from enlisting in the military and stop the military from paying for the transition-related medical care of active duty transgender service members.
Contending that the USA military "must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory", Trump announced last month that the government will not accept or allow transgender Americans to be service members.
