President Donald Trump moved to ban transgender people from the U.S. military in most circumstances, the latest in a series of actions that have met resistance from courts though may resonate with his most ardent supporters as midterm elections approach. Gregory T. Angelo — president of Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for equal rights for the LGBT community — said in a statement that the policy appeared to allow “continued open service of current transgender soldiers,” tantamount to an admission by the Pentagon that “there is ultimately no difficulty with the status quo” and that the policy is reverse engineered and may succeed only in “stoking culture wars.”

Civil-rights advocates said while some transgender service members might be permitted to continue to serve under the announced policy, the exceptions seemed unclear and the policy was likely to foster a hostile climate for those who do wish to remain in the military. Image copyright AFP Image caption The blanket ban announced last year was blocked by federal judges

President Trump has signed a memorandum that bans some transgender people from US military service but rolls back the blanket ban he ordered last year. The US military responded to Trump's original order by allowing those serving to stay in the military and began allowing transgender individuals to enlist beginning on January 1. WATCH: Trump tweets that transgender people won’t be allowed into U.S. military

“This new policy will enable the military to apply well-established mental and physical health standards — including those regarding the use of medical drugs — equally to all individuals who want to join and fight for the best military force the world has ever seen,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday. Aaron Belkin, the director of the the Palm Center, a California-based institute that researches the military service of sexual minorities, said there was “no evidence to support a policy that bars from military service patriotic Americans who are medically fit and able to deploy.”

“Cowardly, disgusting,” is how Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat and the House minority leader, described the ban in a statement. This hateful ban is purpose-built to humiliate our brave transgender members of the military who serve with honor & dignity.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, accused the Trump administration of pushing “anti-transgender prejudices onto the military.”

“There is simply no way to spin it, the Trump-Pence Administration is going all in on its discriminatory, unconstitutional and despicable ban on transgender troops,” said HRC president Chad Griffin. READ MORE: Donald Trump hopes to follow his instincts more rather than staff’s advice

Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & HIV Project, said the policy “effectively coerces transgender people who wish to serve into choosing between their humanity and their country, and makes it clear that transgender service members are not welcome.”

Trump received recommendations from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in February for dealing with transgender individuals serving in the military. The latest plan gives the secretaries of defense and homeland security greater discretion over whether a transgender person can serve. “Currently serving service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria since the previous administration’s policy took effect and prior to the effective date of this new policy, may continue to serve in their preferred gender and receive medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria,” Mattis wrote. Earlier on Friday, Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesperson, said the announcement of a new policy would have no immediate practical effect on the military because the Pentagon is obliged to continue to recruit and retain transgender people in accordance with current law.
US President Donald Trump issues an order banning "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from the military. Pentagon spokesman Major David Eastburn says this announcement will have no immediate practical effect for the military which will continue to recruit and retain transgender people in accordance with current law.