Poll: Nearly half support transgender people serving in military, oppose Trump’s ban

Slightly less than half of Americans support allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military and oppose President Trump’s recent order to ban those individuals from the armed forces, a poll released Wednesday found.

A poll from The Economist and YouGov, conducted March 25-27, found 49 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat favor allowing transgender people to serve, compared to 34 percent who strongly or somewhat oppose the idea. 

The poll was conducted days after the White House issued a memo stating that transgender people are “disqualified from military service except under limited circumstances.”  

{mosads}Wednesday’s poll found 48 percent of people somewhat or strongly disapprove of the ban, while 34 percent approve of it to some degree.

Forty-five percent of people said they don’t believe allowing transgender people to serve has made much of a difference in the military’s effectiveness.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Last week’s memo was not Trump’s first attempt at banning transgender people from serving. He first called for a ban on transgender troops in a series of tweets last summer, and followed up in August by issuing a memo banning transgender people from enlisting. 

The White House said Defense Secretary James Mattis will have some leeway in implementing the policy, as will Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen when it comes to the Coast Guard. The ban is something Mattis “concluded should be adopted,” it notes.

The decision was condemned by LGBTQ advocacy groups and several retired military officers.