Mattis assembling panel to discuss transgender troops
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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is assembling a panel of experts to discuss the matter of openly transgender individuals already serving in the U.S. military.
President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Pentagon to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender individuals joining the military, but he gave Mattis the authority to decide those already serving.
Mattis says in a statement released Tuesday that the Pentagon, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, will develop a plan that "will promote military readiness, lethality and unit cohesion."
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He says, "Panel members will bring mature experience, most notably in combat and deployed operations, and seasoned judgment to this task. "
The White House had said Friday that transgender people would be allowed to continue serving until Mattis had completed such an analysis.