Panel: Allow Transgenders To Serve

A commission co-chaired by former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and former Coast Guard health and safety director Adm. Alan Steinman is urging the Defense Department to allow transgender persons to serve in the armed forces. “There is no compelling reason for the ban,” the panel stated in a March 13 report. Longstanding official reasons for the bar on transgender service, largely centering upon medical issues, are irrelevant, according to the panel, which conducted their research at the Palm Center, a public-policy think tank based at San Francisco State University.