Author Topic: Mattis delays Pentagon’s decision to allow transgender recruits six more months  (Read 293 times)

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Offline Right_in_Virginia

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Mattis delays Pentagon’s decision to allow transgender recruits six more months
Washington Post, Jun 30, 2017, Dan Lamothe

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has delayed a plan approved by the Obama administration a year ago to begin allowing transgender recruits to join the U.S. military, providing the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a six-month reprieve that they requested, the Pentagon said Friday night.

The decision was made on the eve of a deadline set a year ago by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The services can now delay processing transgender recruits until Jan. 1, following another review of accession plans and providing information about how doing so will affect the military and its lethality, Mattis said in a memo. Details about that review must be provided back to Mattis by Dec. 1.

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“Since becoming the Secretary of Defense, I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?” Mattis said. “Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America’s military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services.”




More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/30/mattis-delays-pentagons-decision-to-allow-transgender-recruits-six-more-months/?utm_term=.695aabcde4be