Military scrambles for transgender policy after Trump tweets

President Donald Trump's tweeter feed is photographed on a mobile phone in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. Trump’s tweets declaring transgender individuals unwelcome in his military has plunged the Pentagon into a legal and moral quagmire, seeing off a flurry of meetings to devise a new policy that could lead to hundreds of service members being discharged. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

President Donald Trump's tweeter feed is photographed on a mobile phone in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. Trump’s tweets declaring transgender individuals unwelcome in his military has plunged the Pentagon into a legal and moral quagmire, seeing off a flurry of meetings to devise a new policy that could lead to hundreds of service members being discharged. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

Published Aug 4, 2017

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Washington— President Donald Trump's tweets declaring transgender people unwelcome in his military have plunged the Pentagon into a legal and moral quagmire.

A flurry of meetings has taken place in recent days, the start of an effort to devise a new policy. The result could be hundreds of service members being discharged.

Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard commandant, says a team of military lawyers has been pulled together to deal with the matter. These lawyers are working with the White House to flush out some of the issues. 

They're bolstered by a Pentagon working group that had initially been set up to advance the implementation of the Obama administration's year-old repeal of a transgender ban.

Associated Press

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