THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

The legislation has been endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, SPARTA, Modern Military Association of America, National Center for Transgender Equality, Minority Vets, and American Veterans for Equal Rights

"Anyone willing and able to serve our country should be able to serve authentically," said Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, Vice-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and Co-Chair of the Transgender Equality Taskforce. "Yet, discrimination of all kinds, especially against the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, prevents our military from recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and weakens military readiness. As our military faces recruitment and retention challenges, we need to ensure that our policies reflect our military's values of equality, diversity, and inclusion. I'm proud to introduce the Ensuring Military Readiness Not Discrimination Act, which will ensure that no President can enact discriminatory policies in the military with the stroke of a pen or a tweet."

Alleria Stanley, Director of Communications, SPARTA said: "SPARTA applauds the introduction of this legislation to end discrimination within the uniformed services based on factors that don't affect an individual's capability to serve. For 75 years, many of our citizens who stepped forward to serve have done so without permanent legal protections. Instead, their opportunity to serve is at the pleasure of the President. We honor those who've served in the past by cementing the opportunity to serve for all qualified Americans to serve now and in the future."

Cathy Marcello, Modern Military Association of America Director of MilPride, said: The Modern Military Association of America believes that all who are capable of serving this nation should have the opportunity to serve. Enshrining into law that military service cannot be limited by any criteria relating to the race, color, national origin, religion, or sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics (including intersex traits of an individual) is a critical step in ensuring the recruitment, readiness and retention of our armed forces.

Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign President said: "Open military service by transgender service members has been implemented incredibly successfully. Transgender service members have served with competence, loyalty and distinction, making our armed forces even stronger. They deserve the honor, respect and security that all other service members receive. It's important that we recognize this by protecting their right to serve in law, given that past administrations have sought to unfairly discriminate against them without any legitimate justification. We thank Representative Jacobs for introducing this important civil rights legislation."