ABOVE: Marco Rubio. Photo via Rubio’s Facebook.
Washington, D.C. | Florida Senator Marco Rubio has introduced legislation to ban transgender Americans from serving openly in the military, seeking to strengthen Donald Trump’s policy reversed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
The president ended the policy via executive order after taking office, fulfilling a campaign promise. Rubio, who won his Florida re-election last November, has a long history of supporting anti-LGBTQ measures in Congress.
“Under President Joe Biden, people who identify as transgender or have gender dysphoria can serve openly in the U.S. military,” his office said in a press release Feb. 16. “Senator Rubio’s legislation would prohibit any individual with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria from serving in the military, with limited exceptions.”
“The legislation builds on Trump era restrictions that were repealed by the Biden Administration,” it continued, “but adds more stringent requirements and revamps the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) to ensure all service members’ gender markers match their biological sex.”
The legislation, introduced in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate, is called the Ensuring Military Readiness Act. Rubio’s office said it is designed to regulate transgender service.
“The military has strict standards for who can and cannot qualify to serve,” the senator said in a statement. “For example, under President Biden, you can’t serve with a peanut allergy. Biden has turned our military into a woke social experiment.”
While food allergies do affect the ability to join the U.S. military, it is a policy that pre-dates the Biden administration.
“It is a stupid way to go about protecting our nation,” Rubio continued in the release. “We need to spend more time thinking about how to counter threats like China, Russia, and North Korea and less time thinking about pronouns.”
According to Rubio, U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana will introduce companion legislation in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. “Our bill ensures that DoD puts lethality and readiness before far-left ideology,” he said in a statement.
Rubio’s office also noted that the legislation has support from other Republicans and the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council. The group has been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Biden has vowed to veto anti-LGBTQ legislation should it reach his desk. Upon reversing the trans military ban in 2021, the president said that “”America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception.”
