Pentagon: Ban on transgender troops to be lifted July 1

The Pentagon will announce Monday a finalized plan for lifting the military's ban on transgender troops beginning in July. Each branch of the armed services will have a year to determine and implement any resultant changes to uniforms, housing, and recruitment.

The decision is the result of a working group established last summer by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who said at the time he expected to see the ban go — provided the group did not produce evidence it would have an "adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness."

Of the 1.3 million current members of the U.S. military, the Pentagon estimates around 2,500 are transgender and about 65 seek gender reassignment surgery each year. Skeptics of proposals to lift the ban have questioned whether the military will begin including reassignment services in its medical care for soldiers, an issue which was not the primary focus of the Pentagon's research to date.

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