Eric Fanning
Army secretary at the end of Obama’s term
How does this impact readiness? How many soldiers are not going to be deployable because of medical care that they’re receiving? And RAND’s analysis ― again, before the accession policy was set with the 18-month stability clause ― was that it would be as low as 29 to as high as 129 service members a year that would require medical, surgical treatment for transitioning. I suspect that number’s goi...See More
Ash Carter
Former US Secretary of Defense, former Harvard University professor
We must ensure that everyone who’s able and willing to serve has the full and equal opportunity to do so, and we must treat all our people with the dignity and respect they deserve. Regulations regarding transgender service members [i.e. banning open transgender individuals from the US army] are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions
As a form of government action that classifies people based on their gender identity, and disfavors a class of historically persecuted and politically powerless individuals, the president’s directives are subject to a fairly searching form of scrutiny.
John McCain
U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee
When less than 1% of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country. Any member of the military who meets the medical and readiness standards should be allowed to serve -- including those who are transgender.
On my first day as Secretary of Defense, I wrote, ‘Every action we take will be designed to ensure our military is ready to fight today and in the future.’ It is imperative we align our actions to our larger mission and that we disaggregate priorities that increase the lethality of our forces from functions that are wasteful and unnecessary
Elaine Donnelly
Founder of the Center for Military Readiness
[Trump] has every right to review, revise, or repeal his predecessor's military transgender policies, which would detract from mission readiness and combat lethality.
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
Rick Perry
14th Secretary of @Energy and former Governor of Texas.
The idea that the American people need to be paying for these types of operations to change your sex is not very wise from a standpoint of economics. I think the president makes some good decisions about making sure that we have a force that is capable
Rep. Vicky Hartzler
Republican U.S. Representative for Missouri's 4th congressional district since 2011
By recruiting and allowing transgender individuals to serve in our military we are subjecting taxpayers to high medical costs including up to $130,000 per transition surgery, lifetime hormone treatments, and additional surgeries to address the high percentage of individuals who experience complications. [...] This is also an issue of fairness. Currently we refuse entrance into our armed forces fo...See More
AFA applauds President Trump for his courageous decision to end the usage of our military for social engineering and political correctness. American families deserve a military that is focused solely on readiness and national defense