Nancy Pelosi Pushes For Transgender Acceptance In The Military

Current Defense Department Regulations forbid transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Forces, but Nancy Pelosi thinks it’s time that changed. President Obama can change the current regulations without any congressional approval but hasn’t started the process.

The regulation that bans transgender people in the military is 6130.03. It was established in the 1970s and contains both physical and mental criteria for service.

The rules disqualify anyone with a “history of major abnormalities or defects of the genitalia, such as change of sex [and] hermaphroditism,” or with a “current or history of psychosexual conditions (302) including but not limited to transsexualism.”

Under the current regulations, even the now defunct “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the 1990s would not be applicable. Nancy Pelosi believes that there’s no room for that kind of discrimination in today’s military, her spokesman Drew Hammill told the Washington Blade.

“Leader Pelosi believes there is no place for discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces, including on the basis of gender identity.”

Nancy Pelosi was also an advocate for gay rights in the military and helped push for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As a result, gay and lesbian people have been allowed to serve openly since 2011.

Nevertheless, Pelosi can’t get credit for being the first congressperson to call for the repeal of 6130.03. Representative Susan Davis, a democrat from California like Pelosi, told LGBT Weekly her views on the issue.

“Transgender individuals should not be denied the opportunity to serve in our nation’s military solely on the basis of their gender identity. As with the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Department of Defense will need to make personnel policy adjustments. It makes sense for the DOD leaders to review the entirety of this matter.”

Chuck Hagel has apparently been listening to Pelosi and Davis. The Secretary of Defense said about five months ago that the issue should be reviewed, and the White House agreed, but no action has been taken since.

In recent years, proponents of LGBT rights like Nancy Pelosi have been very successful at changing policy to be less discriminatory. In addition to gay people being allowed in the military, gays and lesbians can legally marry in 32 states and those marriages are recognized by the federal government.

Mara Keisling, director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said that transgender military service will definitely follow the trend.

“We are 100 percent confident that open trans military service is as inevitable as the military bureaucracy that seems to have stalled progress once again.”

Nancy Pelosi may be on the ground floor of another civil rights skirmish.

[Image Credit: Quinn Dombrowski/Wikimedia Commons]