President Joe Biden is expected on
Monday to sign an executive order reversing a ban on open transgender
military service, according to various reports.
During the presidential campaign, Biden
promised he would reverse the ban implemented by former President
Donald Trump.
According to the Washington Blade,
Biden wanted to wait until Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was
confirmed by the Senate before taking the action. Austin was
confirmed with a 93-2 vote on Friday, making him the nation's first
Black person to serve as defense secretary.
During his Senate confirmation hearing,
Austin, for the first time publicly, said that he supports reversing
the ban.
(Related: General
Lloyd Austin says he supports open transgender military service.)
In 2016, the Obama administration
lifted restrictions on transgender people serving openly in the armed
forces.
In a series of tweets in July 2017,
Trump declared that the military would no longer “accept or allow”
transgender troops to serve “in any capacity.” After several
setbacks in lower courts, the administration modified its policy to
allow transgender troops to serve provided they do so as the sex they
were assigned at birth. Troops who came out while the old policy was
in place were grandfathered in.