美五角大樓取消跨性別者服役的禁令大綱

The U.S. Defense Department has lifted its ban on transgender men and women serving openly in the military.

"We have to have access to 100 percent of America's population," Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters Thursday. "Our mission is to defend this country and we don't want barriers unrelated to a person's qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the solder, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission," Carter said.

He said servicemen and women can serve openly immediately and will no longer be discharged just for being transgender.

He said there are currently an estimated 2,500 transgender people serving in active duty.

The military will begin accepting transgender Americans who meet all of the physical and mental standards “no later than one year from today,” Carter added.

The change removes one of the last barriers to military service by any individual. It comes nearly a half-decade after the formal end of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy, which barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military, and less than one year after all combat positions in the military were opened to women.美國國防部取消了對跨性別者公開服役的禁令。

美國國防部長卡特星期四告訴記者說，軍隊招募要面對所有美國人。他還說，我們的任務是保衛這個國家，我們不需要任何跟個人能力無關的障礙，讓我們無法招募和留用能夠最出色完成使命的陸海空和海軍陸戰隊將士。

卡特說，現役軍人可以立即公開身份服役，不會僅僅因爲是跨性別者而被迫退役。

他說，美軍現役軍人裏目前有大約2500名跨性別者。

卡特補充說，軍方在一年內將開始接受跨性別者入伍，只要他們身心都符合標準。

這一政策變化去除了美國人入伍的最後限制之一，距離不讓同性戀者公開服役的“不問不說”政策的正式結束已經過去了近五年時間。不到一年前，美國所有戰鬥崗位開始向女性開放。