President Biden repeatedly said he planned to overturn the ban.
Photo: AFP President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service and that America s strength is found in its diversity, the White House said in a statement. Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country because an inclusive force is a more effective force. Simply put, it s the right thing to do and is in our national interest, it said.
When Trump announced the ban in 2017 on Twitter, he said the military needed to focus on decisive and overwhelming victory without being burdened by the tremendous medical costs and disruption of having transgender personnel.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order that overturned a controversial ban by his predecessor on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military, a move cheered by LGBTQ advocates that fulfills a campaign promise.
Flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Biden signed the executive order in the Oval Office.
“It’s simple: America is safer when everyone qualified to serve can do so openly and with pride,” Biden said on Twitter after the signing.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2016 allowed trans people to serve openly and receive medical care to transition genders, but Republican President Donald Trump froze their recruitment while allowing serving personnel to remain.
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WASHINGTON (Jan 24): There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain said on Sunday. "The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House," Klain said on NBC's "Meet the Press."