(One News Now) A year after former President Barack Obama initiated the practice of recruiting and accepting transgenders into the United States military – and just five months after Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump told the Pentagon transgenders would not be allowed into the Armed Forces in any capacity, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday that it is preparing to accept transgenders on New Year’s Day.
"While reviewing legal options with the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense is taking steps to be prepared to initiate accessions of transgender applicants for military service on January 1, 2018, per recent court orders,” Pentagon Spokesman Maj. Dave Eastburn notified the Washington Examiner in an email.
Obama’s transgender legacy lives onIn November, court orders were issued to temporarily block Trump’s ban on transgenders, and a courtroom decision was made several days ago that will keep the administration from delaying Obama’s July 2016 lift of the restriction on transgenders in the military any longer.
“Last month, district court judges in Washington, D.C., and Maryland issued preliminary injunctions in two federal lawsuits that prohibit the Pentagon from moving ahead with Trump’s directive to phase out transgender service and gender reassignment surgeries,” the Examiner recounted. “The D.C. judge issued a further ruling last week that specifically prohibits Defense Secretary Jim Mattis from delaying earlier plans to begin transgender recruitment into the military next month.”
The month before Trump tweeted about his orders to keep transgenders from serving in the military, Mattis divulged his plans in June for the commencement of transgender troops’ enlistment and commissioning to be delayed for six months.
Trump took Mattis’ plans one step further in late July, declaring via a series of tweets to put an end to transgender troops serving in any capacity – an announcement that was followed up in August with orders to the Pentagon. “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow … [t]ransgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump’s first, second and third tweets posted on July 26 read. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”
The Pentagon’s shift on the matter reportedly has a lot to do with leftist activism infitrating the legal system. “It’s mainly because of the well-funded legal teams pursuing lawsuits against the nation and the activist judges who affirm their complaints,” WND reported. “Ironically, they have decided that while the Barack Obama administration was allowed to arbitrarily change the U.S. military rules on the issue, President Trump is not allowed to change them back.”