Photo: Barack Obama (left) and Chuck Hagel. Credit: DoD Photo by Glenn Fawcett.
The White House signaled their support Friday for a Pentagon review of the military’s longstanding ban on transgender servicemembers.
Asked by Metro Weekly if President Barack Obama supports such a review, which Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said earlier this week he is open to, White House press secretary Jay Carney said they back the defense secretary.
“I would certainly point you to what Secretary Hagel said and we certainly support his efforts in this area,” Carney said.
“I do think it continually should be reviewed,” Hagel said of the medical regulatory ban on transgender military service during a Sunday interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. “I’m open to that, by the way.”
While Hagel said transgender military service was more complicated than gay and lesbian military service, due to the medical needs of some transgender people, Hagel said he was “open to those assessments” of lifting the ban.
“Again, I go back to the bottom line — every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it,” Hagel said Sunday. “This is an area that we’ve not defined enough.”
When asked if Obama supports eventually lifting the ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, Carney deflected back to Hagel’s remarks.
“I would simply, at this point, leave it to Secretary Hagel’s comments,” Carney said. “I haven’t spoken to him directly about this issue, but I would note what Secretary Hagel said and that we support him.”
Hagel’s remarks, as well as the White House’s affirmation today that they support Hagel’s efforts, illustrate a dramatic shift in tone by the Department of Defense on transgender military service.
“This issue has progressed more in seven days than previously imaginable,” Human Rights Campaign Vice President Fred Sainz said. “And I think the fact that it also appears that these are not off the cuff remarks made by Secretary Hagel — that clearly his thoughts, his plan is endorsed by the White House — that shows incredible momentum and strength for this issue and that is deeply, deeply meaningful.”
During a flight en route to Saudi Arabia earlier this week, Hagel expanded upon his remarks, stating that the Pentagon should continue to evaluate the ban.
“I’ve not asked for a specific task force. I’ve not asked for a specific study. I would want to hear more from individuals who are close to this issue, know this issue, who I would value their judgment and their direction on,” Hagel said. When such a review may take place, however, remains unclear. A Pentagon official confirmed to Metro Weekly that no such review has yet been ordered.
“If Secretary Hagel believes the policy should be reviewed and the President supports the Secretary in this, then when does the review begin?” asked Allyson Robinson, SPARTA policy director and a former Army Captain. “For the 15,000 transgender service members putting their lives on the line for us right now, it can’t happen too soon. SPARTA is looking forward to working with the Secretary to update these archaic policies that are hurting our troops and weakening our military.”
A man has been acquitted of the murders of two drag performers in Fort Worth, Texas, not only avoiding a conviction on capital murder charges but on lesser charges of murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, and deadly conduct.
Following a 10-day trial and six-and-a-half hours of deliberation, a Tarrant County jury found Fayaka Dunbar not guilty in deaths of Jason Bradley, a cisgender gay man who performed in drag as Bianca Starr, and his roommate, London Starr, also known as London Watson, a transgender woman and drag performer.
Dunbar was released from custody just 90 minutes after being acquitted. Had he been convicted of capital murder, he would have automatically been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as prosecutors had already waived the death penalty.
A Dallas-area man charged in the fatal 2019 shooting of a transgender woman has been sentenced to 48 years in prison.
Kendrell Lyles, 37, pleaded guilty to shooting Booker, who was 22 at the time of the incident, just before jury selection in his trial.
Booker's body was found on a Dallas street on the morning of May 18, 2019. She had recently spoken out about being attacked by an angry mob following a minor car accident in front of a local apartment complex.
Police said they identified Lyles as the suspect in Booker's murder while investigating the deaths of a man and a woman killed in two separate shootings in the days around Booker's death.
Che Flores, a second-year staff referee for the National Basketball Association, has come out in an interview with GQas the league's first nonbinary and transgender referee.
A Los Angeles native who uses the pronoun "they," Flores worked 35 games last season, and 12 games as a non-staff official during the 2021-2022 season.
When Flores first became an NBA official, the league touted an announcement that two new women referees had been added to the mostly male referee corps -- something Flores found alienating, knowing that, in private, they had begun to identify as transgender.
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