Public Attitudes on Transgender Military Service: The Role of Gender

• Author: Jami K. Taylor,Donald P. Haider-Markel,Daniel C. Lewis,Andrew R. Flores,Patrick R. Miller,Barry L. Tadlock
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X19861737
• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Public Attitudes on

Transgender Military

Service: The Role

of Gender

Daniel C. Lewis

1

, Barry L. Tadlock

2

, Andrew R. Flores

3

,

Donald P. Haider-Markel

4

, Patrick R. Miller

4

,

and Jami K. Taylor

5

Abstract

Policy regarding the inclusion of transgender soldiers in the U.S. Military has

shifted back and forth in recent years, with public opinion likely a significant

factor shaping the eventual policy outcome. As such, this study examines the

factors that shape public attitudes toward military service by transgender peo-

ple. In particular, we examine the influence of sex, social gender roles, and

attitudes toward gender in shaping transgender military service attitudes. Fur-

ther, we hypothesize that personal experiences with the military and with

transgender people, along with values, personality predispositions, and religion,

are likely to influence individual attitudes. We test these hypotheses using data

from a unique October 2015 national survey of American adults. The results

suggest that personal experiences, attitudes toward gender roles, and religion

have substantial but sometimes conditional effects on attitudes toward military

service by transgender people.

1

Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA

2

Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

3

American University, Washington, DC, USA

4

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

5

University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Daniel C. Lewis, Department of Political Science & International Relations, Siena College, 515 Loudon Rd,

Loudonville, NY, USA.

Email: dlewis@siena.edu

Armed Forces & Society

2021, Vol. 47(2) 276-297

ªThe Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0095327X19861737

journals.sagepub.com/home/afs

Keywords

political science, gender issues, transgender, public opinion, minority issues

For more than 25 years, the United States has experienced political and cultural

upheaval at the intersection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/ques-

tioning (LGBTQ) populations, gender, and military issues. From 1993 to 2011, the

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy barred openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual

individuals from serving in the military, but it was silent on whether transgender

people could serve. They were, however, excluded by military medical standards

and other regulations. During this same period, the visibility of transgender issues

increased along with that of the broader LGBTQ community. Indeed, when Presi-

dent Obama repealed DADT in 2011, transgender rights had already become an

important component of the LGBTQ rights movement (Taylor & Lewis, 2014). Yet

the repeal of DADT did not actually allow transgender people to serve in the

military. In 2014, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel asserted that the military should

review its prohibition on transgender people. Just 2 years later, Defense Secretary

Ash Carter announced that “transgender Americans” could serve openly (Bromwich,

2017), which coincided with the decision to allow women to serve in military

combat units. The decision on transgender service followed the example of Canada,

which lifted its ban in 1992 and adopted explicitly inclusive policies in 2010 and

2012 with no loss in operational effectiveness (Okros & Scott, 2015).

1

More recently, the Trump administration reinstituted a near total ban on trans-

gender people serving in the military. Transgender people were barred from service

if they had transitioned, were transitioning, or otherwise engaged in activities that

allowed them to lead their lives according to their gender identity (Sonne & Mar-

imow, 2019). The stated rationale for a ban was “‘tremendous medical costs and

disruption’ of allowing such troops to serve” (The Economist, 2017). The Palm

Center, an independent institute focusing on LGBTQ issues in the military, contends

the ban echoes DADT in that “transgender troops will be forced to leave the military

or to serve in silence” (Palm Center, 2018, p. 1). In less than 4 years, openly

transgender military personnel went from being banned from service, to being

allowed to openly serve, and back to being banned once again (Taylor, Lewis, &

Haider-Markel, 2018).

These policy shifts are not just political fodder. Estimates derived from the

National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), one of the largest surveys

of Americans who identify as transgender or gender nonconforming,

2

show that

these policies affect a substantial number of military service members: “[a]pprox-

imately 15,500 transgender individuals are serving on active duty or in the Guard or

Reserve forces ...and there are another 134,300 transgender individuals who are

veterans or are retired from Guard or Reserve service” (Gates & Herman, 2014, p. 1).

Lewis et al. 277