New Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Sunday that transgender people shouldn’t be prevented from serving in the U.S. military solely based on their gender identity, noting it should not “preclude” them from service.
Carter made the comments at a town-hall event in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in response to a question from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, a doctor, about transgender soldiers serving in an “austere environment” like the one in Kandahar...
The Marine Corps may have to change its physical standards in order to put females in positions to one day lead infantry platoons in combat.
Both the Marine Corps and the Army continue to wrestle with the mandate that former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued in January, directing the U.S. military to open hundreds of combat-arms jobs that have been closed to female servicemembers.