US: House votes to condemn Trump ban on transgender military service

The House voted Thursday to strongly oppose President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, a symbolic rebuke led by Democrats angry at Trump’s reversal of a policy established under President Barack Obama.

The resolution condemns the ban as discriminatory and rejects “the flawed scientific and medical claims upon which it is based,” but it does not move to actually change the policy. It instead “strongly urges” the Defense Department to not implement the ban and to “maintain an inclusive policy” on allowing qualified transgender people to serve in the military.

The resolution passed 238 to 185, with five Republicans joining Democrats in backing the measure. There is no indication the GOP-majority Senate will take up the measure, though binding changes to the policy could be debated as part of the yearly defense authorization process.

Speaking on the House floor Thursday, Democrats lambasted Trump for reversing the Obama policy. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the move “bigoted.” Read more via Washington Post