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| U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., upon his return to Washington after a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, July 3, 2017. / Yonhap |
By Lee Han-soo
U.S. President Donald Trump will ban transgender people from serving "in any capacity" in the country's armed forces.
In a tweet Wednesday, Trump cited medical costs and eroding military readiness and unit cohesion as reasons for the ban. The decision scrapped the policy signed under previous President Barack Obama in 2016 to end a ban on transgender individuals.
Previous defense secretary Ash Carter gave the Pentagon a year to review the process of determining how it would accept new transgender recruits.
But Trump tweeted: "After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
However, Trump has not announced a plan to enable the ban.
Among pressing concerns is what will happen to the thousands of transgender people already serving.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House and the Defense Department will work to implement the ban.
There is an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender active-service personnel, according to a study published by RAND Corporation that the Department of Defense commissioned last year.
However, the research showed that not all members want gender transition–related treatment.
The research concluded that although the cost of treatment could range from $2.4 million to $8.4 million, it would be an "exceedingly small proportion" of total healthcare expenditure.
Meanwhile, the LGBT community and human rights groups vowed to fight Trump's decision.
