Editorials of The Times

It often seems that there is no end to President Donald Trump’s cruel determination to transform America into a country that divides and dehumanizes its people. After his denigration of Muslims, refugees and unauthorized immigrants, the latest example of this disgraceful proclivity is a presidential policy banning most transgender people from serving in the military — the second attempt to do so in less than a year. It puts thousands of servicemen and servicewomen at risk of losing their careers and means countless others may never get a chance to put on the uniform.

The policy Trump announced Friday states, “Transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition are disqualified from military service,” unless the Pentagon grants an exception. This exacerbates uncertainties about how such a policy would be enforced and “makes it clear that transgender service members are not welcome,” the American Civil Liberties Union said.

The policy can’t yet take effect because federal courts have issued temporary injunctions that stay the ban on transgender service members that Trump abruptly decreed in a series of tweets last July, without consulting the nation’s top generals.

Transgender Americans first secured the right to defend their nation as equals in 2016, under President Barack Obama, who made gender identity a protected category in the Pentagon’s equal opportunity policy. Trump’s announcement last summer was an attempt to reverse that Obama-era policy — and a clear effort to pander to Vice President Mike Pence, other right-wing zealots and regressive generals. The United States “will not accept or allow” transgender people in the military “in any capacity,” Trump tweeted at the time. The president, who avoided fighting in the Vietnam War by getting five deferments, also suggested that transgender enlistees are unfit to serve, tweeting that the military “must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory."

In October, after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the move and said the ban was probably unconstitutional, Trump directed the Pentagon to find a way to carry out a version of the ban, and in February, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis provided a recommendation. Mattis, a former Marine general, said that there were “substantial risks” related to transgender people who serve in the military and that allowing some of them to serve would amount to an exemption from certain mental, physical and sex-based standards, potentially undermining troops’ readiness and disrupting unit cohesion.

Although Mattis is considered Trump’s most responsible foreign policy adviser, his handling of this matter has been disappointing. His report to Trump dismissed a RAND Corp. study that found that allowing transgender people to serve would have “minimal impact” on Pentagon readiness and health care costs.

It also seemed at odds with the comments of Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. of the Marines, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee last fall that transgender troops have served with honor — not to mention research predicting there would be little to no effect on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness if transgender people were allowed to serve. Two senior Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is a former POW, and Orrin Hatch of Utah, as well as a group of 56 retired generals and admirals, have voiced similar views.

The number of affected troops is small; an estimated 2,000 to 11,000 identify as transgender, out of a total military force of 1.3 million active-duty members. But Trump’s discriminatory and inhumane order adds immeasurably to the suffering of this minority population yearning to come out of the shadows, be treated as human beings, feel respected and be permitted to serve their country.

As is often the case in America, the rights of vulnerable people now rest with a federal court, this one in the Western District of Washington state, near Seattle. During a hearing there on Tuesday, a judge gave lawyers seven days to file additional documents before deciding on a request by two advocacy groups, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, to permanently end Trump’s transgender ban.

That should happen as quickly as possible so that transgender troops and those who wish to enlist in the military in the future know they will be judged on their skills and abilities, not on discrimination and prejudice.