LGB and Transgender Mandates

The documents posted below provide background information and historic context on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the military.  Researchers are invited to review these documents, as well as articles available in the CMR Issues & Analysis and CMR E-Notes sections of this website, www.cmrlink.org.

Background & Overview:

This is the text of the 1993 law, Section 654, Title 10, U.S.C.  passed with bi-partisan, veto-proof majorities in 1993.  Note that the law passed by Congress is not the same as President Bill Clinton’s administrative policy, usually called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."  Repeal of the 1993 law led directly to policies implementing what could be called LGBT Law, despite the Obama Administration’s previous denials that such consequences would ensue.

Virtually all of the predictions made by supporters of the 1993 law, from same-sex marriages on military bases to increased rates of sexual misconduct, followed by pervasive LGBT Pride events and implementation of transgender ideology and demands, have come to pass. 

• CMR: Are Military Social Experiments Increasing Sexual Assaults on Women?
• DoD: Military Service By Transgender Persons and Persons With Gender Dysphoria (defense.gov) Jan. 29, 2021
• The Federalist: Pentagon Orders Military to Put Male Soldiers in Female Showers

2021: Starting on Inauguration Day, the Biden Administration acted quickly to restore Obama policies re transgenders in the military.

CMR Policy Analysis: Biden Pentagon Quietly Expands Woke Transgender Policies in the Military (8 pages)

• CMR: Biden Pentagon Quietly Expands Woke Transgender Policies in the Military
  CMR: Biden Pentagon Quietly Expands Woke Transgender Policies in the Military (4-Page Summary)
• DoD: Military Service By Transgender Persons and Persons With Gender Dysphoria (defense.gov) Jan. 29, 2021
• CMR: Biden Presidency Begins with Injuries and Insults to the Troops
• White House: EO on Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform
• White House: Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation
• DoD (Trump) Implementation Handbook, Sept. 2020: Military Service by Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria: An Implementation Handbook, Version 2, September 4, 2020 (defense.gov)

2018: The Trump Administration studied the issue of transgenders in the military for 6 months, and then-Defense Secretary James Mattis established a “panel of experts” to produce a report on options for replacing the Obama Administration policy.

President Trump’s policy was not a “ban” on transgenders serving in the military; it was a nuanced policy that was focused on gender dysphoria – one of many psychological conditions making a person ineligible to serve:

• CMR: The Trump/Mattis Transgender Policy – What Are the Facts?
• CMR: Military Transgender Policy Timeline & DoD Summary Graph
• DoD: 5 Things to Know about DoD’s New Policy on Military Service by Transgender Persons & Persons with Gender Dysphoria (Mar. 13, 2019)

The nuanced Trump policy adopted in 2018 was the subject of several lawsuits.  Indications were that it would have been upheld by the Supreme Court, had Donald Trump not lost the election.

• Concurring Opinion of Judge Stephen E. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Jane Doe 2 v. Trump, March 8, 2019
• CMR: Trump Administration Wins Appeals Court Victory in Military Transgender Case
• CMR Policy Analysis: Trump/Mattis Transgender Policy Promotes Military Readiness (4-page March update)

CMR Special Report: Trump Transgender Policy Promotes Military Readiness, Not Political Correctness (April 2018, 34 pages)

• CMR: Trump Transgender Policy Promotes Military Readiness…Not Political Correctness
• FACT SHEET: The 2018 Mattis/Department of Defense Report (4 pages)
• President Donald J. Trump, The White House: Memorandum for the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, “Military Service by Transgender Individuals,” March 23, 2018
• Defense Secretary James Mattis’ February 2018 Memorandum to President Trump

Feb. 22, 2018 

• Department of Defense “Panel of Experts” Report – February 2018
• Whitehouse.gov: Presidential Memorandum to the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security, Subject: Military Service by Transgender Individuals, August 25, 2017
• CMR Special Report: Department of Defense & Military Services Should Revoke Problematic Transgender Policy Directives and Instructions, July 2017, 27 pages
• Executive Summary
• CMR: Restore Military Strength and Pre-Obama Transgender Mandates
• Dr. Paul McHugh, WSJ – Transgender Surgery Isn’t the Solution
• Dr. Joseph Berger, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Diplomate of the American  Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Statement to the Canadian House of Commons

2016:

• Department of Defense: DoD Instruction 1300.28.
• Department of Defense: DTM 16-005 Directive-Type Memorandum
• Department of Defense: Fact Sheet – Transgender Policy

2015: CMR: Secretary of Defense Stumbles Into Transgender Legal Morass- Changes to MEO Policy Briefing Card

2010: The Obama Administration succeeded in its determined effort to repeal the 1993 law, using questionable tactics:

• CMR: DoD IG Report Exposes Improper Activities to Repeal Gays in Military Law
• CMR: LGBT Activists Promote Fake Pentagon Troop Survey
• CMR Summary: Ten Reasons to Oppose the "LGBT Law" or Policy for the Military (2010)

The following statement was personally signed by 1,167 retired military leaders as of May 2010, 51 of them former four-stars.  (All signatures returned by regular mail and on file.)

• Statement of the Flag & General Officers for the Military

Additional information is provided in relevant sections of this peer-reviewed Law Journal article:

• Elaine Donnelly, Duke University Journal of Gender Law & Policy, Gender, Sexuality & the Military, Constructing the Co-Ed Military, Vol. 14, Issue 2, May 2007, pp. 815-952.
• The text of the section of "Constructing the Co-Ed Military" analyzing the legislative history and PR campaign for gays in the military is available here:

Authors of this book, published by the Air University Press at Maxwell Air Force Base, invited Elaine Donnelly to write the chapter titled “Defending the Culture of the Military.”  (pp. 249-292)

• Attitudes Aren't Free: Thinking Deeply About Diversity in the Us Armed Forces 1St edition by Parco, James E. and David A. Levy (2010) Hardcover: James E. Parco, David A. Levy: 9781585662043: Amazon.com: Books 

The book also provided the text of Section 654, Title 10, the 1993 law always mislabeled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the full list of 1,167 Flag & General Officers for the Military who personally signed a statement in support of the 1993 law.

On July 23, 2008, CMR President Elaine Donnelly testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, in support of Section 654, Title 10, the law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to be in the military.  

• Donnelly Testimony: HASC Testimony is available here.
• Executive Summary . 
• False "National Security" Argument for Gays in the Military, Oct. 2009.

• Statement of Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, USA (Ret.) is posted here.  Retired Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, a former Ranger and Delta Force soldier who was part of a Special Operations Forces team involved in the incident known as "Black Hawk Down. " 
• CMR Policy Analyses with Charts: Consequences of the Proposed New LGBT Law for the Military, Jan. 2010.

• Foreign Nations Are Not Role Models for the U.S., Sept. 2009.
• Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) Letter - December 16, 1999 Policy Regarding the Present Ban on Homosexuals in the Military

1993: Following extensive hearings after President Bill Clinton called for repeal of the Defense Department’s longstanding regulations stating that persons engaging in homosexual conduct were not eligible to serve, Congress passed Section 654, Title 10, U.S.C.

• Text of Title 10, Section 654, also known as “The Military Personnel Eligibility Act of 1993”(1993)
• Senate Report 103-112, regarding 1993 law banning gays from the military, Section 654, Title 10, National Defense Authorization Act for FY 1994(published July 1993)
• House Report 103-200, regarding 1993 law banning gays from the military, Section 654, Title 10, National Defense Authorization Act for FY 1994 (published July 1993)

CMR: Gays in the Military: Give the Law a Name.  Liberal activists waged a public relations campaign to repeal the 1993 law banning gays from the military.  The campaign refers to the law as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” even though President Bill Clinton’s administrative policy (DADT) was not consistent with the law.