Nearly two dozen House Democrats proposed legislation this week that would prohibit the Department of Defense from discriminating against transgender people who want to serve in the military.
The bill from Rep. Sara Jacobs, R-Calif., is aimed at stopping Republicans from reestablishing former President Trump’s ban on enlisting anyone with gender dysphoria or who has already undergone gender transitioning. President Biden reversed that decision, and Jacobs and 22 other Democrats in the House are pushing for a new law that would prevent that Trump-era policy from returning.
"Anyone willing and able to serve our country should be able to serve authentically," said Jacobs, who is also vice chair of the Congressional Equity Caucus and co-chair of the Transgender Equality Taskforce.
"Discrimination of all kinds, especially against the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, prevents our military from recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and weakens military readiness," she said. "As our military faces recruitment and retention challenges, we need to ensure that our policies reflect our military’s values of equality, diversity, and inclusion."
In 2017, Trump announced on Twitter that the military would "not accept or allow… transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military," because the military must be focused on "decisive and overwhelming victory" and cannot be "burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
