USA Today reported on Wednesday
that the Pentagon will end its ban on transgender troops on May 27.
The paper reported that it had obtained
a draft memo on ending the policy.
“The memo, circulated last week among
top personnel and medical officials, lays out the road map for ending
the policy and highlights some of the potential issues, including a
pilot program that would provide leaves of absences for transgender
troops being treated with hormones or having surgery,” USA Today
wrote.
In July, Defense Secretary Ash Carter
created a working group to study the issue over six months, saying
that the military's current policy is “outdated.”
The August 19 memo also outlines a
pilot program to provide leaves of absence for transgender personnel
to allow them to undergo hormone therapy or surgery.
A study conducted by the Palm Center
and published earlier this month in the New England Journal of
Medicine estimated the military would spend $5.6 million per year
to treat transgender troops.
The cost, the report concluded, would
be “too low to warrant consideration in the current policy debate.”
An estimated 15,000 transgender people
serve in the active-duty military and the reserves.