Judge Orders Military To Accept Transgender Recruits
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - A federal judge has ruled that the military must move forward with its policy allowing transgender recruits starting in January.
The ruling clarifies an earlier decision that blocks President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops. There are two current federal court injunctions against Trump's order.
An Obama-era order says transgender service members cannot be removed from service based on their gender identity. The Pentagon won't release numbers but a Rand study found there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military and up to 4,000 in the reserves.
In July, President Trump tweeted that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity. The president gave as his reason as the "tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."