Almost immediately after he took office, President Biden followed through on a campaign pledge and signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense to reverse Trump's ban on transgender military service, but the department still had to follow through on the legal process of rewriting the rules.
The White House asked the Pentagon to follow through within two months and they've now done that. The Associated Press reports that the new rules were finalized today which also happens to be Transgender Day Visibilty.
It appears that the new rules will go further that the Obama-era policy that Trump repealed.
The new department regulations allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they will be able to get medically necessary transition-related care authorized by law, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal decisions not yet made public. [...]
The new rules also prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Their expected release Wednesday coincides with International Transgender Day of Visibility.
[Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin] has also called for a reexamination of the records of service members who were discharged or denied reenlistment because of gender identity issues under the previous policy.
The Pentagon was able to review the previous policy and finalize new rules within just two months because there was nothing left to review.
The Department of Defense already spent a significant amount of time reviewing the issue under President Obama and determined that allowing transgender service members to serve openly as the gender they identify as would have no impact on military readiness or unit cohesion.
The Trump regime ignored the Obama-era review and even ignored objections from the Pentagon when he issued his ban on behalf of the religious fundamentalists who support him.
You know, since Republicans seem to think transgender people are superhumans who threaten the existence of sports programs, why wouldn't they want us in the military?