Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks at a press conference at the end of the NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, (Photo: Julien Warnand, EPA Images) 
 
 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced late Friday that it will delay until at least 2018 rolling out its policy for acceptance of transgender troops into the ranks. 
 
 The move by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis comes just hours before a July 1 deadline, set in the Obama administration, for the military to recruit transgender enlisted troops and to accept new officers. 
 
 "Secretary Mattis today approved a recommendation by the services to defer accessing transgender applicants into the military until Jan. 1, 2018," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. "The services will review their accession plans and provide input on the impact to the readiness and lethality of our forces." 
 
 In May, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work had ordered the armed services to advise him of their plans to meet the deadline, or advise him of concerns about how accepting new transgender troops could affect the military's readiness to fight. The Army and Marine Corps both sought delays. 
 
 Transgender troops already in the ranks can continue to serve, under the policy developed last year by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Mattis has made clear that the military's readiness to fight is his top priority. 
 
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 But the lack of a policy to accept new transgender troops already has caused problems. In May, the Air Force and Army were unable to commission transgender cadets from their prestigious military academies because the military lacks an acceptance policy for new transgender troops. 
 
 Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, which studies issues of sexuality in the military, said it would force troops to lie about their identity, as did the former policy that prohibited gay and lesbian troops from serving openly. 
 
 “Secretary Mattis' decision to prolong the enlistment ban will have the effect of requiring applicants to lie in order to join the military, as was the case under ‘Don’t Ask, don’t tell,’ Belkin said. “That makes no sense because, as predicted by all of the research, transgender military service has been a success. “ 
 
 The Rand Corp. found in 2016, in a study commissioned by the Pentagon, that accepting transgender troops would have a negligible impact on military readiness. 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tzxNav ||||| Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved the recommendation from the services that lifting the ban be delayed. | AP Photo Pentagon delays lifting of transgender troop ban 
 
 The Pentagon announced Friday night that it will delay allowing openly transgender troops to join the military until Jan. 1, 2018. 
 
 Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved the recommendation from the services that lifting the ban be delayed to allow them time to review the impact on “the readiness and lethality of our forces,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. 
 
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 The six-month delay will only impact new transgender recruits, not the estimated 15,500 already serving. It follows reports last week that the service leaders requested the delay. 
 
 Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the decision to allow transgender troops to serve openly on June 30, 2016, with an implementation deadline of July 1, 2017. 
 
 Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., said allowing transgender troops to serve openly is “ill-conceived and contrary to our goals of increasing troop readiness.” 
 
 “This delay is indicative of a policy that was rushed and never clearly thought out and I am pleased that Secretary Mattis has decided to delay the accession policy,” she said in a statement. 
 
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 Hartzler introduced and then withdrew an amendment to the House’s defense authorization bill in committee this week that would repeal the policy that allows transgender troops to serve openly. While she withdrew the amendment, she said she may bring it up again during debate in the full House in July. 
 
 The move faced immediate blowback from gay-rights advocates. The American Military Partners Association called it “disappointing” that qualified transgender people can’t be open about their identity when enlisting or commissioning. 
 
 “It has been unequivocally proven that allowing qualified transgender people to serve openly strengthens our military and creates a more inclusive and diverse force. The issue has been thoroughly studied and moving forward with this new recruitment policy is imperative in order for the military to be able to recruit the best talent our nation has to offer,” the association’s president Ashley Broadway-Mack said in a statement. 
 
 OutServe-Service Members Legal Defense Network also issued a statement, saying that they still expect the ban on transgender service to be lifted at the end of the six-month delay. 
 
 “We reiterate that the services are prepared for transgender individuals and assert that delays beyond January 2018 will have a negative impact on military readiness---that we cannot tolerate,” the group said in a statement. 
 

– The military isn't quite ready to recruit transgender troops. A new policy allowing the Pentagon to do so was supposed to begin on July 1, but defense chief Jim Mattis said Friday night that it would be delayed six months, reports USA Today. A Pentagon statement said Mattis had approved a request by the military's branches to postpone the change in policy so they'd have more time to assess its impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." An estimated 15,500 transgender troops are currently serving, per Politico, and Mattis' decision does not affect them. Critics of the move said it would force transgender recruits to lie if they want to join the military, just as Don't Ask, Don't Tell had forced gay recruits to hide their sexual identity. But Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., applauded the move, asserting that the idea of transgender recruitment is “ill-conceived and contrary to our goals of increasing troop readiness.”