US President Joe Biden will lift the ban of his predecessor Donald Trump, which did not allow transgender people to serve in the military. This was reported by the CBS News TV channel, citing sources.
It is expected to be officially announced on Monday at a ceremony featuring the new head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin. Biden will sign the relevant decree and order military units to develop a plan to implement it.
Earlier it was reported that Biden would appoint male-born Rachel Levine, a physician to the Assistant Secretary of Health. She will thus become the first transgender person to be appointed to a federal office with confirmation in the Senate.
Since June 2016, transgender people have been able to freely serve in the military after former American leader Barack Obama lifted an earlier ban. However, a year later, in July 2017, Trump announced a ban on transgender people from serving in the armed forces. In particular, with some exceptions, persons who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, manifested in the fact that their physiological gender did not correspond to internal feelings, were not allowed to military service. Persons who were not found to have gender dysphoria were allowed to serve, but only in their biological field.