美国国防部取消了对跨性别者公开服役的禁令。
美国国防部长卡特星期四告诉记者说，军队招募要面对所有美国人。他还说，我们的任务是保卫这个国家，我们不需要任何跟个人能力无关的障碍，让我们无法招募和留用能够最出色完成使命的陆海空和海军陆战队将士。
卡特说，现役军人可以立即公开身份服役，不会仅仅因为是跨性别者而被迫退役。
他说，美军现役军人里目前有大约2500名跨性别者。
卡特补充说，军方在一年内将开始接受跨性别者入伍，只要他们身心都符合标准。
这一政策变化去除了美国人入伍的最后限制之一，距离不让同性恋者公开服役的“不问不说”政策的正式结束已经过去了近五年时间。不到一年前，美国所有战斗岗位开始向女性开放。
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.
