According to an article published
Monday, Vice President Mike Pence played a leading role in the
creation of a report in support of President Donald Trump's
transgender military ban.
In a memo issued late Friday, Trump
announced that transgender people “with a history or diagnosis of
gender dysphoria” are “disqualified from military service except
under certain limited circumstances.” The ban does not apply to the
estimated 8,980 transgender people currently serving in the armed
forces.
After Trump first announced the ban in
July on Twitter and ordered the Pentagon to implement it, LGBT rights
groups filed four legal challenges to banning transgender troops. In
each case, a judge has blocked implementation of the ban. The
Pentagon has said it will comply with the orders.
Friday's memo was accompanied by a
report on “military service by transgender persons.”
According to Slate's
Mark Joseph Stern, Pence “played a leading role in the creation
of this report,” along with Ryan T. Anderson and Tony Perkins.
Perkins helms the Christian
conservative Family Research Council (FRC), which has been labeled a
“hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its
vocal opposition to LGBT rights. Perkins in July said that FRC
worked with the White House on crafting the ban. The following
month, Foreign Policy reported that FRC was lobbying Congress
on a bill that sought to prohibit the Pentagon from funding “medical
treatment related to gender transition.”
In October, Perkins said that openly
gay, lesbian and transgender troops create “moral confusion” that
leads to sexual harassment in the military.
Trump has praised Perkins as “a
tremendous guy.”
Anderson of the conservative Heritage
Foundation is also a vocal opponent of LGBT rights. He is the author
of Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,
in which he argues against marriage rights for gay and lesbian
couples, and When Harry Became Sally, in which he argues that
transgender individuals are mentally ill.
The report claims that transgender
service members “undermine readiness,” “erode reasonable
expectations of privacy,” and that their medical needs “impose
disproportionate costs” on the military.
“Given its authors,” Stern wrote,
“the Trump report's conclusions are unsurprising.”
Stern, however, concludes that Trump's
ban is not likely to take effect because it's “plainly
unconstitutional.”