A meeting that will begin the groundwork for allowing transgenders to openly serve in the military has been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 3, by top Pentagon officials, a high-ranking official from the US Defense Department confirmed.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter issued a memo ordering top military brass and civilians to develop a six-month plan, which will formally lay out his road map incorporating transgender soldiers in the ranks and protect them from being discharged.
"The working group will start with the assumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified," Carter stated in a memo, according to USA Today.
Top military officials are given 180 days to address issues concerning housing, uniforms, medical treatments and medical benefits that should be accorded to transgender troops, an anonymous official told USA Today.
The memo came two weeks after Pentagon announced its plan to lift the ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military in the coming months.
On July 13, Carter said Defense Undersecretary Brad Carson will lead a working group of senior military and civilian leaders who will be tasked to take an objective look at the issue over the next six months.
Carson will particularly study "the policy and readiness" of the military to carry out the plan as military chiefs wanted to methodically work through the legal, medical and administrative issues and develop training to ease any transition.
Earlier, Carter tasked Carson to be on top of cases forcing out transgender individuals who are already serving the military in order to lift the ban while other officials look at its practical consequences on military readiness.
"We have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines –real, patriotic Americans, who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing inconsistent approach that's contrary to our value of service and individual merit," Carter said, according to Fox News in a report last month.
In February, the US Army approved hormone therapy for Chelsea Manning, a soldier currently serving a 35-year prison sentence after being convicted of leaking national security secrets to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks. Manning, whose previous first name was Bradley, transitioned into a woman while serving his sentence at the Army's Fort Leavenworth prison.
Active and non-active US military personnel participate for the first time in San Diego's Gay Pride Parade in San Diego, on July 16, 2011.
