Should the Military Ban Transgender Soldiers: Here's what you need to know about President Trump's transgender military ban and the questions surrounding it.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

President Trump announced over the summer that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military. The move has sparked the latest battle over the rights of people who identify themselves as a different gender from the one they had at birth.

There have been a series of recent controversies over the rights of transgender people, especially regarding their right to use the bathroom of their choosing in public places. In 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case about whether a transgender boy had the right to use the boys' bathroom at a high school in Virginia, but the justices changed course last spring and decided not to rule on the case. Most experts expect another case dealing with transgender rights to get to the Supreme Court sometime soon, but for now, transgender people remain in a state of legal uncertainty.

Here's what you need to know about the transgender military ban.

1. What are the arguments for and against a ban?

   When President Trump announced the ban in a July tweet, he said the military couldn't afford the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" of allowing transgender people to serve. The idea that transgender soldiers would threaten military cohesion and readiness was the rationale for the long-standing ban on transgender military personnel, which President Barack Obama lifted in 2016.

   Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, praised Trump "for keeping his promise to return to military priorities--and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

   But others say the military shouldn't be in the business of evaluating a person's gender identity.

   "Any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so--and should be treated as the patriots they are," says Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, a former Navy pilot.

2. Does the president have the power to issue a ban?

   In a word, yes. The president, in his capacity as commander-in-chief, has a lot of latitude to direct policy at the Department of Defense. And it's not the first time a president has made a huge--and controversial--change to the military's makeup.

   In 1948, at a time when racial segregation was still the norm in much of the nation, President Harry S. Unman issued an executive order desegregating the military. At the time, opponents said allowing blacks and whites to serve in integrated units would threaten troop...