Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28
After Joe Biden was elected and sworn in, one of his first executive orders was the repeal of the Presidential Memorandum on Military Service by Transgender Individuals.
[6][7] On January 25, 2021, Biden signed an executive order that required the DoD to reverse the memorandum, permitting transgender people to serve in the U.S.
[13][14] In July 2017, the Freedom Caucus threatened not to vote for the budget unless President Trump instituted some prohibition on paying for gender reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender people serving in the military.
There was no agreement, but four options were developed:[15] On July 26, 2017, President Trump tweeted that he would ban transgender personnel in the United States military.
[16] According to Politico, President Trump had always planned to ban transgender individuals from the military and prohibit the DoD from funding gender reassignment surgeries.
The guidance encourages early retirement, push out any enlisted personnel after their contract expired, and fire transgender officers who are up for promotion.
The new policy did allow transgender service members to continue serving, but offered no protection from harassment or other efforts to get them to quit, along with prohibiting coverage of transitioning or other medical costs.
The guidance was expected to be transmitted to the DoD the week of August 7, 2017, but tensions with North Korea, internal conflict within the White House, and pushback from the military prompted the authors of the policy to revise it again.
[22] The National Guards of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington refused to enforce the transgender ban.
However, regional commanders and the senior officers present could suspend or restrict the privilege of wearing preferred gender civilian attire to meet local conditions and host-nation agreements with foreign countries.
[35] Kirsten Gillibrand condemned Trump for the directive, saying, "A man who has never served has told men and women that their service is not worthy, based on their gender identity.
[38] On March 18, 2019, Democratic 2020 nominee Cory Booker vowed to reverse Donald Trump's ban on transgender individuals serving in the military if elected.
[41][42] When asked about "the rights of transgender people, banning them from military service" in a televised townhall on October 15, 2020, Biden replied, "I would just flat-out change the law.
