On January 25, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order overturning the ban on transgender people openly serving in the military. GLMA President Scott Nass, MD, MPA, FAAFP, AAHIVS, and Executive Director Hector Vargas, JD, issued the following statement in response:

“GLMA applauds the Biden administration for its reversal of the scientifically unsubstantiated ban on military service for transgender Americans. Healthcare experts agree that there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender people from service. This has been the position of the leading health professional associations, including the American Medical Association, which adopted this policy in 2015 after GLMA proposed it to the AMA House of Delegates - a moment that helped turn the tides. 

“As we celebrate the overturning of the ban on openly transgender servicemembers, and as state legislatures attack the health and dignity of transgender youth, we affirm that transgender people belong everywhere.”