Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin
and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, this week
said that he “wouldn't change” the military's ban on transgender
service.
The Department of Defense (DOD) last
month announced that it is studying the option of ending the ban. An
estimated 15,000 transgender men and women currently serve in the
U.S. military, making the DOD the largest employer of transgender
people in the United States.
In an interview with Newsmax TV, Walker
was asked: “As commander in chief, what would be your position on
transgender and gays and lesbians serving in our armed forces?”
“I wouldn't change the policy,”
Walker answered.
“And I think at a time when we just
came off the week when four Marines and a petty officer in the Navy
were ambushed and killed at a recruiting center, where we see the
current administration under the Obama-Clinton doctrine not lifting
the political restrictions on our men and women in uniform in Iraq,
when we see the challenges we face around the world, I think those of
us who are talking about running for president need to focus on what
we need to do to rebuild the military.”
“Our goal is [for there] to be peace,
but there will be times when America must fight. And I think it
needs to be clear that Americans fight to win, and our men and women
in the military need to have the resources to do that,” he
added. “So as president I'm going to spend my time focused on
those issues, not those others.”
(Related: Mike
Huckabee on transgender soldiers: “The military is not a social
experiment.”)