The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 has been signed into law (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Outgoing US President Joe Biden has signed a defense bill that will increase military salaries and overall spending but includes a controversial provision limiting gender-affirming access to care for transgender children of members of the armed forces.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 is the most recent version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual piece of legislation that outlines military spending and budgets, and was adopted by the Senate in an 85-14 vote last week.
Since the NDAA was first introduced more than 60 years ago, it has not failed to pass Congress.
The legislation outlines pay increases for military personnel, significant funding for new battleships and increased annual military spending to $895 billion. However, the bill also includes an anti-trans clause that will prevent Tricare – the US military’s healthcare plan for people in service – from issuing “medical interventions” to people under the age of 18 “for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” .
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The health care provision was widely criticized by activists, military members and politicians, with the organization representing LGBTQ+ service members and veterans labeling it a “direct attack on military families and a betrayal of our nation’s promise to those who serve.”
While signing the bill into law because his administration is “pleased to support the bill’s critical goals,” Biden noted “concerns” about the anti-trans provision in a statement because it “interferes with the role of parents in determining the best care for their children.”
“My Administration strongly opposes Division A, Title VII, Subtitle A, Section 708 of the Act, which hinders the Department of Defense’s ability to treat all persons equally under the law regardless of gender identity,” Biden said.
“By prohibiting the use of appropriated funds, the Department of Defense will be forced to violate clinical practice guidelines and clinical recommendations. The provision targets a group based on that group’s gender identity and interferes with the role of parents in determining the best care for their children.
“This section undermines the ability of our all-volunteer military to recruit and retain the greatest fighting force the world has ever known by denying health care coverage to thousands of children of our service members. No service member should have to choose between access to health care for their family and their calling to serve our nation.”
President Joe Biden. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The passage of the bill comes after a turbulent few weeks for the trans community in the United States following that of Donald Trump victory in the November presidential electionswhich the elected Republican president has promised remove transgender people from almost all aspects of public life.
It will be the official policy of the United States government when he returns to office “that there are only two genders, male and female,” he said Sunday in a speech at a Turning Point USA event for young conservatives in Phoenix , Ariz. December 22).
“I will sign executive orders to end the sexual mutilation of children, to get transgender people out of the military and out of our elementary, middle and high schools,” he told the cheering crowd of Republican voters, citing he also promised to “keep men out of women’s world.” sport”.
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