WASHINGTON– SPARTA, the association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who currently serve or have served in the U.S. armed forces and their families has called Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s failure to mention transgender military service in yesterday’s speech at the Pentagon’s event to commemorate LGBT Pride Month a “slap in the face”.
“Words of inclusion are empty without action, action that is long overdue. This was a perfect time for the Secretary to announce, at the very least, an expedited policy update and/or uniformly elevating transgender discharge authority to the Pentagon. With thousands of transgender service members and their commanders anticipating action, on a day when Secretary Carter spoke specifically about LGBT issues, he ignored them,” said Allyson Robinson, former Army officer and SPARTA director of policy. “This is a slap in the face to those service members and their units and leaders who support them.”
In the past few days, the New York Times editorial board has accompanied a feature on soldiers, an airman, and a Naval officer with a strong call for allowing transgender people to serve openly; an Army doctor with the rank of Major came out, reporting that her gender was officially changed in the Army’s medical system; and the American Medical Association approved a resolution that there is no medical justification for excluding transgender people Sent from my iPhone military service, calling the policy “outdated.
“The Air Force’s recent clarification of policy was welcome, but signaled a need for leadership from the top to provide consistent, DOD-wide guidance,” continued Robinson. “At this point, there is so much confusion in the field that questions about individual service members are being floated from company commanders in the field all the way to the Pentagon. It’s long past time for a leadership on this issue. The policy must change.”
