FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, April 26, 2018
AFTER ALL FOUR MILITARY SERVICE CHIEFS CONFIRM
TRANSGENDER TROOPS HAVE NOT HARMED UNIT
COHESION, DISCIPLINE, OR MORALE, GILLIBRAND
LEADS BIPARTISAN GROUP OF 49 SENATORS IN TELLING
DEFENSE SECRETARY MATTIS TRANSGENDER TROOP BAN
IS HARMFUL TO MILITARY
Senators: New “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy For
Transgender Service Members Will Harm Our
Nation’s Military
Trump Administration’s Ban On Transgender Troops
Goes Against The Consensus From Medical
Community And Military Leadership That
Transgender Troops Are Physically And Mentally
Able To Serve
Washington, DC –
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the
Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services
Personnel Subcommittee, today led a bipartisan
group of 49 Senators in a letter to Secretary of
Defense James N. Mattis opposing the Trump
Administration’s ban on transgender service
members and decrying the Secretary’s
implementation recommendations for the ban. The
Senators’ letter follows statements by the
chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and
commandant of the Marine Corps asserting that
open transgender service has had no negative
effect on unit cohesion, discipline, or morale.
The statements were made in response to Senator
Gillibrand’s questions at four recent Senate
Armed Services Committee hearings.
“The recommendations and report break faith with
the men and women serving in our military by
establishing a new “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for
transgender service members, permitting them to
serve only if they are willing to forego any
chance of living as their true selves,”
the Senators wrote. “Just as our mistaken
policy regarding lesbian, gay and bisexual
service members harmed readiness and ultimately
was repealed, the implementation of your
recommendations will also harm our nation’s
military. Accordingly, we are opposed to the
implementation of this discriminatory policy.”
“The Senators who signed the letter to Secretary
Mattis are rightly concerned that the Pentagon
is taking aim at its own troops, and doing so on
the basis of false and misleading claims about
the research that shows that inclusion promotes
readiness, and that transgender troops are as
medically fit as their peers,”
said Dr. Aaron Belkin, Director of the Palm
Center.
“Today's letter reflects the overwhelming
bipartisan opposition among both members of
Congress and the American public to this
president's dangerous and unconstitutional ban
on transgender troops,”
said Human Rights Campaign Government Affairs
Director David Stacy. “The implementation
guidance issued by the Trump-Pence
administration was fundamentally flawed and
misleading in its assessments and conclusion.
Since the President's first reckless and
impulsive tweets on this matter, military
leadership, medical experts and federal courts
have all affirmed the fact that there is simply
no reason to bar qualified transgender people
from serving their country. The Human Rights
Campaign is grateful to Senator Gillibrand for
her ongoing leadership on this critical issue --
and we thank all members of Congress from both
parties who continue to speak out in support of
our brave service members.”
“This bipartisan letter from nearly four dozen
members of the U.S. Senate, led by Senator
Gillibrand, is a powerful rebuke to the
implementation plan for President Trump’s
discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to
ban transgender people from the Armed Forces.
The implementation plan released on
March 23rd
was nothing more than transphobia masquerading
as policy. This letter makes clear that
transgender people in our military deserve more
from their government than a policy that coerces
them into choosing between their humanity and
their country and that tells them that they are
not welcome. It’s very encouraging to see this
support for transgender service members from so
many senators. The ACLU will continue to work
with Democratic and Republican allies in
Congress to vigorously oppose this reckless and
unconstitutional policy,”
said
Ian Thompson, Legislative Representative for the
ACLU.
As part of the requirements set out by President
Trump after his announcement of a ban on
transgender service, Secretary Mattis submitted
to the President his recommendations on how to
implement the President’s ban as well as a
report from a panel he established to assess the
issue. These documents were made public in a
Department of Justice court filing on March 23,
2018.
The recommendations and report ignore the
scientific consensus about transgender
individuals’ physical and mental ability to
serve in the military. The recommendations also
contradict the recent statements by the four
military service chiefs that open transgender
service members have not affected good order and
discipline or unit cohesion.
In the letter, the Senators decry the
recommendations and urge Secretary Mattis to
establish a fair policy that allows any
Americans who are willing and capable of serving
their country to join the military. The
bipartisan letter was signed by Senators
Gillibrand (D-NY) and Murkowski (R-AK), Senate
Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and
Senators Baldwin (D-WI), Bennet (D-CO),
Blumenthal (D-CT), Booker (D-NJ), Brown (D-OH),
Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Carper (D-DE),
Casey (D-PA), Coons (D-DE), Cortez Masto (D-NV),
Donnelly (D-IN), Duckworth (D-IL), Durbin
(D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA), Harris (D-CA), Hassan
(D-NH), Heinrich (D-NM), Heitkamp (D-ND), Hirono
(D-HI), Jones (D-AL), Kaine (D-VA), King (I-ME),
Klobuchar (D-MN), Leahy (D-VT), Markey (D-MA),
McCaskill (D-MO), Menendez (D-NJ), Merkley
(D-OR), Murphy (D-CT), Murray (D-WA), Nelson
(D-FL), Peters (D-MI), Reed (D-RI), Sanders
(I-VT), Schatz (D-HI), Shaheen (D-NH), Smith
(D-MN), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Udall
(D-NM), Van Hollen (D-MD), Warner (D-VA), Warren
(D-MA), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Wyden (D-OR).
The text of the Senators’ letter is available
here and
below:
April 26, 2018
The Honorable James N. Mattis
Secretary of Defense
1100 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301
Dear Secretary Mattis,
We write with great concern and disappointment
about your implementation policy recommendations
for President Trump’s transgender ban that were
released on March 23, 2018. The recommendations
and their supporting report are contrary to
medical and scientific consensus and
misrepresent the most comprehensive analysis of
the costs and implications of transgender
service, published by RAND for the Department
only two years ago. The recommendations and
report break faith with the men and women
serving in our military by establishing a new
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for transgender service
members, permitting them to serve only if they
are willing to forego any chance of living as
their true selves. Just as our mistaken policy
regarding lesbian, gay and bisexual service
members harmed readiness and ultimately was
repealed, the implementation of your
recommendations will also harm our nation’s
military. Accordingly, we are opposed to the
implementation of this discriminatory policy.
This new policy came as a surprise to many of
us, particularly in light of the many
statements—from all levels of military and
political leadership under your tenure—arguing
that open service has had no impact on readiness
or good order and discipline, and that
transgender service members should be treated
with dignity and respect and allowed to serve as
long as they meet the standards. Just last
month, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper told the
press that the issue of transgender service “has
not come up” in his conversations with soldiers.
Last year, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
General Joe Dunford testified before the Senate
Armed Services Committee that “[a]ny individual
who meets the physical and mental standards and
is worldwide deployable and is currently serving
should be afforded the opportunity to continue
to serve.” Last year, Chief Master Sergeant of
the Air Force Kaleth Wright told airmen that
“[t]here was a time when I couldn‘t serve in our
United States Air Force. There was a time when
my wife, who is retired, couldn’t serve in our
United States Air Force, because [the military]
thought it would be too disruptive. So as long
as they are in uniform and considered airmen in
our United States Air Force, we treat them with
the same level of dignity and respect we would
treat any other airmen.” And 56 retired general
and flag officers said after the initial
announcement of the ban that the President’s
“proposed ban, if implemented, would cause
significant disruptions, deprive the military of
mission-critical talent, and compromise the
integrity of transgender troops who would be
forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender
peers who would be forced to choose between
reporting their comrades or disobeying policy.
As a result, the proposed ban would degrade
readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask,
don’t tell’ policy.”
Yet, on
March 23,
in ongoing litigation challenging the
President’s proposed ban, the Department of
Justice filed a declaration in federal court
that included a memo under your signature
providing implementation recommendations to the
President that would essentially bar transgender
service members from accession and retention.
These recommendations purport to be based on an
attached report that misrepresents the
scientific consensus on gender dysphoria and
falsely claims that transgender individuals
cannot meet the same physical and mental health
standards applied to others. These
misrepresentations are in contravention of the
conclusions of medical and mental health
professionals about gender dysphoria and
transgender service in the military. The
American Medical Association reiterated its
stance on April 3, 2018, that “[w]e believe
there is no medically valid reason—including a
diagnosis of gender dysphoria—to exclude
transgender individuals from military service.”
The American Psychological Association released
the following statement:
The American Psychological Association is
alarmed by the administration’s misuse of
psychological science to stigmatize transgender
Americans and justify limiting their ability to
serve in uniform and access medically necessary
health care.
Substantial psychological research shows that
gender dysphoria is a treatable condition, and
does not, by itself, limit the ability of
individuals to function well and excel in their
work, including in military service. The science
is clear that individuals who are adequately
treated for gender dysphoria should not be
considered mentally unstable. Additionally, the
incidence of gender dysphoria is extremely low.
No scientific evidence has shown that allowing
transgender people to serve in the armed forces
has an adverse impact on readiness or unit
cohesion. What research does show is that
discrimination and stigma undermine morale and
readiness by creating a significant source of
stress for sexual minorities that can harm their
health and well-being.
Further, in a statement issued on March 28,
former U.S. Surgeons General M. Joycelyn Elders
and David Satcher debunked the report’s
assertion that there is “considerable scientific
uncertainty and overall lack of high quality
scientific evidence demonstrating the extent to
which transition-related treatments … remedy the
multifaceted mental health problems associated
with gender dysphoria.” The former surgeons
general counter that “there is a global medical
consensus that such care is reliable, safe, and
effective” and conclude that “[a]n expectation
of certainty is an unrealistic and
counterproductive standard of evidence for
health policy—whether civilian or
military—because even the most well-established
medical treatments could not satisfy that
standard” and setting such a standard “suggests
an inability to refute the research.” Finally,
they “underscore that transgender troops are as
medically fit as their non-transgender peers and
that there is no medically valid
reason—including a diagnosis of gender
dysphoria—to exclude them from military service
or to limit their access to medically necessary
care.”
The
March 23
report also claims that “[u]nlike past reviews,
the Panel's analysis was informed by the
Department's own data and experience obtained
since the Carter policy took effect.” However,
most of the bases for the report’s
recommendations are not grounded in any reported
experience from the last two years, but rather
in “potential” issues. For example, the report
asserts that “[t]he potential for discord in the
unit during the routine execution of daily
activities is substantial and highlights the
fundamental incompatibility of the Department's
legitimate military interest in uniformity, the
privacy interests of all Service members, and
the interest of transgender individuals in an
appropriate accommodation.” Given that the
Department’s experience with open service
should, after almost two years, include “routine
execution of daily activities,” it is telling
that this conclusion is offered without evidence
of such “discord.” It is one of many such
assertions that open transgender service poses
problems made without any evidence drawn from
“the Department’s own data and experience.”
The Department of Defense and every service
promised their transgender service members that
they would be treated with dignity and respect.
These recommendations and report fail in that
promise. The report has provided no proof that
open transgender service would undermine
readiness, yet has been used to recommend a
policy that would deny transgender Americans the
opportunity to serve their country unless they
hide their identities.
In 2010, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress with regard to
the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy: “No matter how
I look at the issue, I cannot escape being
troubled by the fact that we have in place a
policy which forces young men and women to lie
about who they are in order to defend their
fellow citizens. … For me, personally, it comes
down to integrity — theirs as individuals and
ours as an institution….I also believe that the
great young men and women of our military can
and would accommodate such a change. I never
underestimate their ability to adapt.”
These words are as true today as they were in
2010. At a time when the U.S. military is
struggling to recruit and retain the number of
quality individuals that it requires to meet
today’s challenging environment, this policy
will undermine morale within the services and
send a message to young Americans that the
military is an outdated institution that
discriminates against those who are able and
want to serve simply because of who they are.
We strongly oppose your recommendations. Rather
than a policy which excludes all transgender
individuals, the military should establish a
policy which includes all Americans who are
willing to serve and a policy that reasonably
protects the military’s interest as an employer
in providing necessary medical care for those
willing to serve our country.