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Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement that Mattis
accepted a recommendation to defer transgender applicants until
Jan. 1.
The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving
in the U.S. military in 2016 under the Barack Obama
administration. It was expected to start allowing transgender
people to begin enlisting this year, provided they had been
"stable" in their preferred gender for 18 months.
A delay under President Donald Trump's administration alarmed
transgender advocates.
"We are disappointed in this needless delay because the
thousands of highly trained and qualified transgender service
members openly and proudly serving our nation today have proven
that what matters is the ability to accomplish the mission, not
their gender identity," Stephen Peters of the Human Rights
Campaign said in a statement.
Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter cited a study by
the RAND Corporation saying there were about 2,500 transgender
active-duty service members and 1,500 reserve transgender
service members.
Rand's figures were within a range, which at the upper end
reached 7,000 active duty forces and 4,000 reserves.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by
Bill Trott)
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