Marine Corps Times: Many transgender individuals choose not to seek gender reassignment surgery so there is no requirement that official gender and physical genitalia match for troops or recruits.
Defense officials estimate there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender troops in today’s active-duty force of 1.3 million people.
“Although relatively few in number, we’re talking about talented and trained Americans who are serving their country with honor and distinction,” Carter said Thursday.
“We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and develop each individual, and we want to take the opportunity to retain people whose talent we’ve invested in and who have proven themselves,” Carter said.
“The reality is that we have transgender service members serving in uniform today, and I have a responsibility to them and their commanders to provide them both with clearer and more consistent guidance than is provided by current policies,” Carter said.
Carter said the costs of the new policy would be minimal. He pointed to a recent study by the Rand Corp. that concluded there will be “minimal readiness impacts” and the health care costs would amount to “an exceedingly small proportion” of the overall military health care expenditures.
