Duped again. The Transgender Serving Openly in the Military policy was another “Obama Era” policy that never existed. After 8 years of Obama banning transgenders from serving openly, Sec. or Defense Ash Carter announced the ban would end…in 2017. Sec. of Defense Mattis, in July of 2017, extended the ban another couple months in order to finish researching the process.

I know how it can be confusing.  Since Trump’s announcement, a handful of transgender veterans have made the news.  Now retired and open, they have called Trump out for saying they are in any way unfit to serve.  I’d tend to agree with them.  So why did Trump continue the actual Obama era policy of the ban?

To be clear, when Trump tweeted that Transgenders would be banned from the military that was a reversal of declared policy, but not a reversal of actual implemented policy. For 8 years Obama maintained the ban on Transgenders in the military.

So why did Trump circumvent General Mattis’s process? Because the day before Trump’s tweet, the House defeated a measure that would prevent taxpayers from paying for gender reassignment surgery.  That was the trigger for Trump declaring the Obama era ban would continue.