President Donald Trump says the U.S. military will no longer let transgender people serve in any capacity, reversing a policy former President Barack Obama's administration announced a year ago.
In a string of Twitter comments, Trump said Wednesday that after consulting with generals and military experts, he was ordering the armed forces to stop accepting transgender recruits.
"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.
Trump did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the U.S. military - about 4,000 personnel, according to research by the Rand Corporation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump will "have to work together" with the Defense Department to "lawfully determine" the fate of transgender service personnel already in the military.
She rebuffed reporters' inquiries suggesting that Trump had broken an election-campaign vow to support the transgender community. The president felt his decision was "the best one for the military," Sanders said.
In addition to service members known to be transgender, defense officials said there are about 250 military personnel who are believed to be transitioning to a gender other than the one they were identified with at birth.
Trump's announcement came one day ahead of a deadline for the military to update its medical regulations to accommodate transgender personnel, but the Pentagon appeared to be caught off-guard when the president issued his Twitter comments.
The Defense Department said it was referring all questions about the change in policy to the White House. The Pentagon said it would "continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief," and then brief military officials.
Trump's action drew an immediate rebuke from a leading group supporting transgender rights and many lawmakers who had favored last year's policy change.
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin said, “I know transgender service members and vets who have done more to serve their country than @realdonaldtrump has in his entire life."
One of the country's most prominent transgender activists, Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst freed recently from prison for leaking classified military documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, said, "So not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar."
A senior Republican lawmaker, Senator John McCain, held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, chided Trump for taking up such a serious issue on Twitter, and said the statement was unclear: "The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving."
Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, said, "No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from the honor and privilege of serving our nation."
"Thousands of transgender service members defend our country," Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said in a tweet. "They're patriots & should be applauded not discriminated against by Pres Trump."
Another Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, said: "The thousands of transgender Americans serving in our #military are courage incarnate. They are patriots. And they deserve better than this."
Hundreds of people also gathered Wednesday in both New York and San Francisco to protest Trump's decision.
美国总统川普宣布，美国军队将不再允许跨性别者以任何身份服役，逆转了前总统奥巴马政府一年前宣布的政策变更。
川普在周三发出的一系列推文中说，在与将领和军事专家咨商后，他下令军队停止征收跨性别者。
川普写到“我们的军队必须精力集中取得决定性和压倒性的胜利，而不能为跨性别者造成的巨额医疗费用和干扰所累。”
根据兰德公司的统计数据，目前大约有4千名跨性别者在美国军中服役。川普没有说将如何处理已经在军中服役的跨性别者。
白宫发言人桑德斯随后表示，川普“需要与国防部合作”才能就已经在军中服役的跨性别者的前途作出“合法的决定。”
她拒绝回答记者提出的关于川普是否违背了竞选期间支持跨性别者的承诺。桑德斯说，总统认为他的决定“符合军队最佳利益。”
除了已知的跨性别者人数，国防部官员说还有大约250名军人正在进行变性手术。
川普是在军方为顾及跨性别者对医疗规章进行更新的截止日前一天宣布该决定的。但五角大楼看起来被总统的推文有些措手不及。
国防部表示，会将所有政策变更相关的问题转给白宫。五角大楼表示将“继续就总统宣布的新规定事宜与白宫密切合作，”随后将向军方官员汇报。
川普的决定随即受到一个主要跨性别者权益组织和对去年支持政策变更的国会议员的抨击。
人权战线总裁查得·格里芬说：“我认识的跨性别现役军人和退役军人在服务国家方面所作的比川普一辈子做得都多。”
美国最知名的跨性别权益活动人士切尔西·曼宁说：“你不仅想禁止跨性别者，现在还想把我们关进监狱？听起来挺熟悉。”曼宁曾是美军情报分析员，因向维基解密泄露军方保密文件入狱，近期获释。不过也有一些曾在军中服役者在社交媒体上对川普的决定表示支持。
资深共和党参议员约翰·麦凯恩曾在1960年代的越战期间被俘。他斥责川普在推特上的处理这样严肃的问题，并说该声明模糊不清。他说：“国防部已经决定允许正在服役的跨性别者留在军中，而且他们中许多人正在光荣服役。任何符合目前体检和就绪标准美国人都应该被允许继续服役。”
佛罗里达共和党众议员伊莲娜·罗斯-雷婷恩说：“任何美国人，不能因为他们的性取向和性别认同，而剥夺他们为国家服务的荣誉。”
新罕布什尔民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣在一条推文中说：“数千名跨性别者为我们的国家服务，他们是爱国者，应当得到我们的掌声，而不是受到川普总统的歧视。”
马里兰州民主党参议员本·卡丁说：“在军队中服役的数千名跨性别者勇气可嘉。他们是爱国者。他们理当享有更好待遇。”
星期三数以百计的人聚集在纽约和旧金山抗议川普的决定。