Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said no decision on the matter
had been made yet.
"Different services had different takes. So, some asked for
time," she said.
The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving
in the U.S. military in 2016 under the Obama administration. It
was expected to also start allowing transgender individuals to
begin enlisting this year, provided they had been "stable" in
their preferred gender for 18 months.
News of a potential delay under President Donald Trump's
administration alarmed transgender advocates.
"There are thousands of transgender service members openly and
proudly serving our nation today ... what matters is the ability
to get the job done — not their gender identity," said Stephen
Peters of the Human Rights Campaign.
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; Editing by Tom Brown)
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