WASHINGTON -- The prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military "continually should be reviewed," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday.
Hagel did not indicate whether he believes the policy should be overturned. However, he said "every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it."
A transgender individual is someone who has acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or presents themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.
A panel convened by a think tank at San Francisco State University recently estimated that about 15,450 transgender personnel serve in the military and in the National Guard and Reserve. Officials who worked on that study say that transgender people are overrepresented in the military, compared with the rest of America, because many male-to-female transgender individuals enlist to try to submerge their feminine sides, while many female-to-male transgender people enlist because they want to be in a hypermasculine environment.
In 2010, Congress passed legislation allowing homosexuals to serve openly. Hagel said the issue of transgender serving in the military is more complicated. He said "these issues require medical attention" that at times cannot be provided in austere locations.
In the U.S. military, transgender service members can be summarily dismissed, as Defense Department guidelines describe transgender people as sexual deviants and their condition as "paraphilia," with its connotations of the atypical and extreme.
The National Center for Transgender Equality said it welcomed Hagel's comments, which were made on ABC's This Week. The organization's executive director, Mara Keisling, said the regulations that disqualify transgender recruits and service members are based on outdated prejudices and stereotypes.
"If the secretary were able to meet and talk with the trans service members I've met, he'd understand the answer is self-evident. These are amazing people who serve even though they must hide a basic part of who they are," Keisling said.
SPARTA, an advocacy group made up of gay, bisexual or transgender people who now serve or once served in the military, said a review was long overdue.
"Many of our allies, including the U.K., Australia and Israel, allow transgender people to serve with pride and honor in their armed forces. It's time for the U.S. to join them," said Allyson Robinson, the group's policy director and a former Army captain.
Last month, a soldier who was convicted as Pfc. Bradley Manning for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, won an initial victory toward living as a woman when a Kansas judge granted a petition for her to change her name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. The decision cleared the way for official changes to Manning's military records, but it did not compel the military to treat her as a woman, including not moving her to a prison with a woman's unit or allowing her to receive the desired counseling and hormone treatment.
It remains unclear whether the military will seriously review its ban on transgender people, and President Barack Obama has not addressed the issue specifically. In 2011, speaking to a gay rights group, Obama said that "every single American -- gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender -- every single American deserves to be treated equally before the law."
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Helene Cooper of The New York Times.
A Section on 05/12/2014