LGBT rights groups are applauding President Joe Biden's executive order reversing former President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops.

Biden signed the order on Monday.

“What I'm doing today is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” Biden said from the Oval Office before signing the order.

Restrictions on transgender people serving openly in the armed forces were lifted in 2016. But Trump, in a series of tweets in July 2017, 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.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised he would reverse Trump's ban.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, said that the military would once again “value readiness over bias, and qualifications over discrimination.”

“For years, transgender patriots were forced to continue to hide their identity while serving in our military,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “But today, thanks to President Joe Biden, Secretary Lloyd Austin, and pro-equality voters across America, they may live and serve openly as themselves. The government will begin the process to eliminate an arbitrary and discriminatory executive action that has not only harmed transgender service members but our entire military. The greatest military in the world will again value readiness over bias, and qualifications over discrimination.”

Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of the LGBT media watchdog GLAAD, said that her organization “salutes transgender service members, their courage and their sacrifice.”

“The American people, military leaders, and service members themselves, all overwhelmingly support transgender military service,” Ellis said in a statement. “They know that brave trans patriots have served throughout history and continue to serve honorably and capably, defending our country. By prioritizing an end to this discriminatory, unjustified ban, President Biden has fulfilled a campaign promise and is making our military stronger and more unified.”

Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), said that Biden's order “allows us to put this shameful episode behind us and marks the beginning of a much brighter era in which military service is once again based on a person's qualifications, not on who they are.”

“Transgender people have proved their fitness to serve and ask nothing more than the opportunity to do so based on the same standards that apply to others,” Minter said. “This is a great day for our nation and a welcome relief from the negative and divisive policies of the past four years.”

Biden's order sets up a 60-day deadline for the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security to produce a report for the White House on how changes could be implemented. It remains unclear when transgender people will be allowed to enlist in the military without barriers.