Report: 10 soldiers requesting gender identity change

Ten soldiers have formally asked the Army to recognize their gender identity within weeks of the Pentagon’s new transgender policy taking effect, according to an Associated Press report Monday.

“We may not know the full scope yet,” Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff, told the AP in an interview. “Others that may consider themselves as transgender but haven’t self-identified publicly may be holding back because they want to see how things progress.”

{mosads}Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in June that transgender troops would be allowed to serve openly effective immediately.

But the new policy included a 90-day grace period before the military would begin covering medical care for transgender troops and troops could change their gender in the Pentagon’s personnel system.

The 90-day period ended Oct. 1, and troops can now formally request to change their gender in the system. The Pentagon issued a guidebook on how commanders should deal with troops changing genders, and the Army has followed suit with its own directive, as have other branches.

A RAND Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon when it was working on lifting the ban found that there are about 2,450 transgender troops in active duty and about 1,510 in the reserves. The study did not break down the numbers by service branch.

Other estimates place the number of transgender troops higher, such as a 2014 UCLA Williams Institute study that said there are 8,800 active duty transgender troops.

In the AP interview, Milley said he was one of the military leaders concerned the Pentagon was moving too fast in changing policy.

“The issue to do it or not to do it, to me is not an issue — the answer is yes,” Milley said. “The question of how to do it so that it is deliberate, well thought out, executed with professionalism — that’s a horse of a different color. Frankly I asked for more time.”

But now that the policy has changed, Milley said the Army is working to implement it. That includes bringing in education programs to make sure troops and commanders know the new rules, process, medical criteria and who has the authority to make decisions on a service member’s gender change.

Under the Army policy, training must be developed by Nov. 1, and the entire force must be trained by July 1.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time, but there are some things I don’t think you need to necessarily be trained on,” Milley told the AP. “Rule One is treat your soldiers, your subordinates, your peers and your superiors as you want to be treated. Treat everybody with dignity and respect. Period. Flat out. Full stop.”