Joe Biden recently signed an executive order in yet again a contradiction to one of Trump's existing policies. It reverses the policy on banning transgenders in the U.S. military, causing military veterans to claim it will be catastrophic.
In just a week after Biden's inauguration, he already signed over 30 executive orders. While the reversal is not part of the first few signed executive orders, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that it would be among the "additional executive actions" that will be granted in the upcoming days and weeks.
The White House announced on Monday that Biden had recently signed an executive order "... that sets the policy that all Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve." which means that trans-identified individuals now have the opportunity to serve in the U.S. military according to Christian Post.
Former President Donald Trump announced in a series of tweets in July 2017 that people who identify themselves as transgender are not allowed to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces because of issues like the cost of elective cosmetic surgeries and cross-sex hormones which would be estimated to be between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year.
Aside from all the extra budget it would cost the government, trans-identified soldiers would also need ample time to recover from said surgeries before they could serve in the army.
"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump wrote on Twitter after reversing Obama's policies on trangenders serving in the army.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave his statement during his Senate confirmation hearing on January 19 indicating his support for the reversal of Trump's policies.
"I truly believe ... that if you're fit and you're qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve," Austin's answer to a question from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
People reacted to Biden's reversal claiming it would affect military readiness and would encourage further division in the society which is an antithesis of what Biden had promised --- unity, U.S. Marine Veteran Tony Perkins said on Monday.
"Providing our service members with the resources to keep our country safe would help move our country in this direction. Instead, President Biden is diverting precious dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery. The military cannot focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars when it is being used as a vehicle to advance the far-left's social agenda," Perkins claimed.
Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, director of The Heritage Foundation think-tank's Center for National Defense, also shared his statement with The Christian Post on Monday regarding the issue claiming that Biden is prioritizing "political correctness" over military readiness.
"By overturning the current policy regarding individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, the commander in chief is signaling that he is more interested in social engineering than safeguarding the health and well-being of American service members," he said.
He also emphasized the suicide rate could rise even more if Biden put individuals suffering from gender dysphoria at a higher stress level.
"After considerable study, the previous administration found gender dysphoric people attempt suicide at about nine times the rate of the general population. Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria are also nine times more likely to have mental health encounters with a professional." he added.
Spoehr continued by saying that it would be "immoral to place individuals at higher risk from mental injury - such as those suffering from gender dysphoria" in situations where they are "likely to experience extraordinary stress."
According to The Wall Street Journal, The Pentagon claimed that around 9,000 service members identify as transgender and fewer than 1000 of them were diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
