(THE HILL) — New Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Sunday signaled that he is open to transgender people serving in the military, saying their sexual identity should not “preclude” them from contributing to the armed services.
“[W]e want to make our conditions and experience of service as attractive as possible to our best people in our country. And I’m very open-minded about — otherwise about what their personal lives and proclivities are, provided they can do what we need them to do for us. That’s the important criteria,” Carter said during a town hall event in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“I don’t think anything but their suitability for service should preclude them,” he added.
