What Is The Military’s Transgender Policy? Latest Trump Order On Schools Confuses Families

The concerns military families had for their transgender children may soon be reality. Since President Donald Trump took over for Barack Obama late last month, schools under the Defense Department’s purview have stood down from the former commander-in-chief’s directive that afforded transgender children the right to use whichever bathroom or locker room fell under their gender identity, the Military Times reported Saturday.

According to the report, defense officials have said that school principals will now “address concerns and identify solutions” on a “case by case” basis.

While the number of transgender children under the military’s schools was unknown, the move followed a Trump directive carried out by the Department of Education and Justice Department last week that allowed public schools to transgender students' bathroom and locker room choices. However, the military was initially unsure if its schools would also be affected.

“This is the first we’ve heard of this. It’s extremely frustrating,” the president of the American Military Partners Association, Ashley Broadway-Mack, told the Military Times. The group specifically acts as a support network for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community who also serve in the military.

Obama’s directive allowing transgender kids to choose which facilities to use, based on protections under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, was applied to all schools in the country this past May. Then, in July, he went even further, saying the roughly 7,000 transgender servicemen in the military could openly serve. In October, a Pentagon official issued a memorandum that specifically allowed all transgender children access to facilities throughout military bases. It was applied all across the Defense Department.

The Trump administration has also commented on transgender Americans' right to choose their restrooms, with the president labeling it an issue to be left to individual states.

"The president has maintained for a long time that this is a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday. "So while we have further guidance coming out on this, I think that all you have to do is look at what the president’s view has been for a long time, that this is not something the federal government should be involved in, that this is a states’ rights issue."

But advocates like Broadway-Mack stressed the need for details about how the change in policy would look going forward.

“They owe the military community an explanation," she said. "We need to know what this looks like for the military community."