NEW YORK – The Department of Defense announced this past weekend that it will push back the plan first approved by the Obama Administration to allow transgender recruits to serve in the nation’s armed forces. This policy change was handed down with no explanation and comes a year after transgender soldiers currently enlisted in the military were allowed to openly serve. This delay now prevents transgender cadets who have graduated from military academies from being able to actively serve.

While this current setback is a six month delay, not a reinstatement of the ban, it feeds into the demands of the far-right, anti-LGBTQ group Heritage Foundation and sets the groundwork for Secretary James Mattis to work with anti-transgender advocates who are pushing for a complete reversal of the policy.

In light of this development, here’s a look at some of the anti-LGBTQ hate-groups and anti-transgender advocates aggressively lobbying Secretary Mattis for a complete reinstatement of the ban on transgender servicemembers. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups and Anti-Transgender Advocates behind the Push for the Reinstatement of the Transgender Military Ban

Tony Perkins – President of the Family Research Council (FRC)

• Declared that “it might even be better” if the president disbanded the military rather than accommodate transgender soldiers, because “We’re probably better off without a military that is not compromised.”
• Argued that that implementation would be both damaging and costly in a recent Christian Post Op-Ed.
• Hosted anti-trans conversations with members of congress and pushed the flawed “research” of his FRC colleagues on his daily radio show.

Peter Sprigg – Senior Follow for Policy Studies at FRC

• Took the lead on the FRC’s overall anti-trans beliefs/rhetoric: (www.frc.org/transgender)
• Wrote multiple issue briefs on the topic, arguing that inclusion would be both costly and detrimental.

Elain Donnelly – Founder of Center for Military Readiness

• One of those most vocal and visible opponents of LGB service members serving openly.
• Her organization, the Center for Military Readiness, posted a lengthy document entitled “Holdover Transgender Mandate Impedes Efforts to Strengthen Military,” as well as an even lengthier report entitled “The President, Defense Department & Military Services Should Revoke Problematic Transgender Policy Directives and Instructions.”
• Wrote an anti-transgender commentary that ran in the Military Times. 

James Dobson – Founder of Focus on the Family

• Sent a newsletter to his attentive followers, wherein he framed transgender inclusion as the latest “social experiment” that conservatives should oppose: “Let’s consider military personnel with what the American Psychiatric Association defines as a diagnosed mental disorder known as gender dysphoria (transgender). Such individuals are now recruited and retained and are entitled to a full range of medical and psychiatric services. They include counseling, cross-sex hormones, gender reassignment surgery, and social and legal transition to the desired gender.”

Liberty Counsel

• Took the approach of backing the supposed “religious freedom” rights of soldiers who object to transgender inclusion.
• Just last week, Liberty Counsel penned a letter to Georgia’s Fort Benning Army Base, insisting that “Biological sex is an immutable characteristic” and that transgender inclusions “requires Soldiers and civilians to affirm their agreement with numerous false ideas with fake “definitions” invented by LGBT radicals intent on normalizing behavior that is the result of gender confusion or a sexual fetish.”

Roger Severino (who was part of Heritage/Daily Signal)

• In a 2016 commentary that was widely disseminated through conservative media outlets, Severino criticized the policy change as being “based on a radical new gender ideology.” He went on to claim that this change “dishonors” veterans.  
• Currently holds a key position in the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services.

American Family Association (AFA)

• When the Obama era policy announced in July 2016, AFA president Tim Wildmon declared it “a disgrace to our military and our country.” AFA personality Bryan Fischer called it “an impeachable offense.”
• Used their in-house OneNewsNow site to push stories warning of the supposed dangers of implementation.

Heritage Foundation/Daily Signal

• Thomas Spoehr, who holds the title of the Heritage Foundation’s director of the Center for National Defense, recently took to the organization’s in-house Daily Signal website to argue that allowing transgender service members is “a gamble” and that “the stakes are too high” to move forward with implementation. Mainstream outlets like The Hill and The Daily Beast have quoted Spoehr as an expert on this issue.

Conservative Action Project

• A collection of high-profile anti-LGBTQ activists demanded that “Secretary Mattis should suspend and, upon further careful study, rescind Defense Department and military service directives permitting transgender individuals to serve.”

WND (formerly WorldNetDaily)

• Promoted several stories about Christian soldiers’ supposed persecution over transgender non-acceptance.

Breitbart

• Ran an anti-trans commentary from Family Research Council’s resident military “expert” Jerry Boykin. Last July, Breitbart ran a similar commentary from the same Boykin, this one calling transgender acceptance in the military “a deadly distraction.”