Palm Center Statement on Pentagon Moratorium on Discharges of Transgender Service Members

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 13, 2015 – Following today's Department of Defense announcement of a moratorium on discharges of transgender service members as well as a process to review the Pentagon's ban, Palm Center director Aaron Belkin offered the following statement:

"Today's announcement is welcome news, not just for the 15,500 transgender personnel serving currently, but for all Americans. The Pentagon should move quickly to replace the ban with inclusive policy, and its review process should be informed by the social science research that explains how to do so. Both the research as well as the lessons of 18 foreign militaries that have lifted their bans on transgender personnel show that lifting the ban will not be difficult."

Last year, the Palm Center released a study, "Report of the Planning Commission on Transgender Military Service," that found that allowing transgender personnel to serve in the military "is administratively feasible and neither excessively complex nor burdensome." The authors of that study, who included three retired General Officers as well as leading scholars and experts, provided a detailed roadmap for the policy change and concluded that implementation could proceed immediately and will be successful in its execution.

The Palm Center's research on this topic can be viewed here.

About The Palm Center

The Palm Center is an independent research institute committed to sponsoring state-of-the-art scholarship to enhance the quality of public dialogue about critical and controversial issues of the day.

For the past decade, the Palm Center's research on sexual minorities in the military has been published in leading social scientific journals. The Palm Center seeks to be a resource for university-affiliated as well as independent scholars, students, journalists, opinion leaders, and members of the public. For more information, see www.palmcenter.org