Trans Military Ban

It's been a lifelong dream of mine to join the military and to serve my country. There are lots of perks to joining the military. One of the incentives I find most intriguing is the travel portion of service. I would love to be able to travel and see the world on someone else's dime. Another pretty sweet incentive is the healthcare provided. However, as of right now, this may just stay a dream of mine.

The Obama administration lifted the ban in Summer 2016, allowing trans people to serve openly and to be provided with healthcare for transition (hormones, gender-affirming surgeries). However in Summer of 2017, the Trump administration reinstated the ban via twitter (later to be brought into the courts). Since then, the ban has been backlogged in courts due to the discrimination of the ban and the outrage by civilians, politicians, and some trans military personnel. Unfortunately in January of this year, the Supreme Court ruled (5-4) that the ban should go into effect, despite the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard saying that there has not been any issue with trans service members serving.

The ban now bars most trans people from joining the military, unless:

You have been stable in your biological sex for 3 years (36 months) after completion of hormones and surgeries.

You are diagnosed with gender dysphoria after joining the military and you do not require a change of gender and remain deployable.

You are a service member who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the effective date of the ban (you may serve and receive hormone treatments).

You are a transgender person not diagnosed with gender dysphoria and you do not require a change of gender, you must serve in your biological sex.

So, there is still a chance for some trans people to serve (36 months of being stable in biological sex after hormone therapy and surgery), but for the most part the ban is basically saying that "you can serve and be trans, but you can't transition and you must serve in biological sex". Essentially, you can be trans and be in the military, but you can't be trans.

Currently, the fight is still on in Washington D.C.. There has been a bill in motion to urge Congress to not implicate the ban and to stop it.

Information on the bill to block the trans ban: https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/2/07/bipartisan-senators-reps-introduce-bill-block-trans-ban