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Loophole in Rules on Transgender Troops Denies 2 Their Commissions - The New York Times

posted onMay 28, 2017
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Not long after the Pentagon lifted its ban on transgender troops last year, a West Point cadet named Riley Dosh came out as a transgender woman. She figured she would transition while serving in the Army, as other transgender soldiers have done. “As cadets we’re told not to hide,” Ms. Dosh said. “So I felt it would be dishonest to continue hiding.” But coming out of hiding has carried a price. Ms. Dosh, 22, is one of two transgender cadets — the other is at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs — caught in a kind of military limbo. After four years of training to become officers, they are being denied their commissions because of a loophole in Pentagon policy that its chief author says he did not foresee. At issue are rules governing “accessions” — the military’s term for accepting new recruits or officer candidates. Pentagon officials say the transgender policy, released in October, covers only those on active duty — not new recruits or new officer candidates. Each service, and each service academy, is expected to issue its own guidelines for accessions later this month, so that transgender people may enlist, or enroll in school, beginning July 1. The two cadets are being treated as new officer candidates. But Brad Carson, a former acting under secretary of defense who is the architect of the transgender policy, said its authors “envisioned that the same rules that apply to active-duty service members today would also apply to service academy pe... Link to the full article to read more

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