The American Medical Association voted unanimously Monday to pass
a resolution stating that "there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals" from US military service. Here's the verbiage:
"RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association affirm that there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from service in the US military (New HOD Policy); and be it further RESOLVED, That our AMA affirm transgender service members be provided care as determined by patient and physician according to the same medical standards that apply to non-transgender personnel. (New HOD Policy)."
An
estimated 15,500 transgender individuals currently serve in the US military even though military medical regulations still prohibit transgender service. Last week, the Air Force
tightened regulations for discharging transgender personnel, saying that identifying as transgender was no longer "an automatic circumstance" for initiating an involuntary separation.
The AMA resolution further stated that the military's medical regulations are “out of date with respect to medical consensus about gender identity."
Advocates for transgender service hailed the AMA's findings. Here's Diane Mazur, a former law professor, Air Force officer, and vice president at The Palm Center:
“The military disqualifies transgender personnel without any chance to show fitness for duty,” she said, “and it denies them medical care it would provide to other service members. It’s an arbitrary over-reaction to something the military simply does not understand well.”