BCNN1 Says That is Good. President Trump, Delay It Forever.
This Idea Will Completely Destroy the Morale in the U.S. Military That is Already Very Low.
The Pentagon announced on Friday that Defense Secretary James Mattis has approved military leaders’ request to delay the July 1 deadline set by the Obama administration for the armed services to begin accepting openly transgender applicants.
“After consulting with the service chiefs and secretaries, I have determined that it is necessary to defer the start of accessions for six months,” Mattis said in a memo that was sent service chiefs on Friday, the Associated Press reports. “We will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality.”
The memo added that each policy decision should be measured against “one standard.” That is standard is whether transgender enlistment will impact the military’s readiness to defend the nation.
The previous deadline of Saturday was established by former Defense Sec. Ash Carter last year when he ended the ban on transgender individuals openly serving in the military. The deadline has been extended to Jan. 1, 2018.
Last month, military leaders worked out an agreement to ask Mattis for a six-month delay after the Army and Air Force initially wanted a two-year delay.
The delay of the deadline has been praised by social conservative advocates.
“The Pentagon is right to hit the brakes on a policy that will fail to make our military more capable in performing its mission to fight and win wars,” Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, former U.S. Army Delta Force commander and current Family Research Council executive vice president, said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. “It’s good that the nation’s military leadership realizes what the American people realize, this policy makes no sense.”
Aaron Belkin, the director of the LGBT think tank Palm Center, told AP that the delay is “denigrating the value of military service by transgender troops.”
“Service Chiefs are pressuring Secretary Mattis to continue the transgender enlistment ban despite having no new arguments or data to back up their long-discredited assertions,” Belkin said. “Stonewalling on full inclusion will, just like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ compromise military readiness.”
The deadline does not completely halt the transgender policy, as the Pentagon began allowing transgender service members who are already serving to openly identify as transgender and change their military identification last October.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith
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