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As President-Elect Donald Trump prepares to assume office in January, his administration has reportedly indicated plans to implement certain policy changes that would affect transgender individuals across various sectors.
But Trump's campaign spokesperson and to-be White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Wednesday "no decisions on this issue have been made," when asked if Trump would discharge transgender military personnel after international reports this week claimed that he would.
"These unnamed sources are speculating and have no idea what they are actually talking about. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople," Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement.
SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit organization advocating for transgender military personnel, told Military.com this week there are approximately 15,000 transgender personnel stationed around the world, including in combat zones.
During Trump's first term, he announced via Twitter in July 2017 that the U.S. would no longer allow transgender individuals to serve "in any capacity." Previously, the Obama administration allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military and get taxpayer-funded gender-affirming treatments while serving.
Trump cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" after announcing the roll back of the policy. After legal challenges, a revised policy was implemented in 2018 that only prohibited individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria from serving, unless they had not undergone a sex change and were "stable in their biological sex."
In January 2019, as legal challenges mounted, the Supreme Court allowed the ban to stand. By the time President Joe Biden took office, he reversed the Trump-era restrictions.
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Throughout Trump's presidential campaign this election cycle, he also indicated certain changes would be made to so-called gender-affirming care for minors, too.
In a video posted to Truth Social in February 2023, Trump said his plan "to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth" would involve issuing an executive order directing all federal agencies to halt any programs that support or promote sex changes at any age.
"I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states," Trump said in the video.
Trump's stance on transgender issues also became front and center on the last leg of his campaign when his team aired an ad targeting biological males in womens' sports. The ad focused on men in women's sports and Vice President Kamala Harris' track record of ushering in sex change procedures for incarcerated people in California.
"Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you," the narrator of Trump's campaign ad said. Experts say the TV spot had a substantial influence on swing voters.
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