From Military Times:
Defense Secretary Ash Carter last year formed a working group to hammer out a new policy, which he said would be unveiled by this spring. Yet the issue has stalled amid high-level disagreement over the details, according to officials familiar with the Pentagon’s internal debate.
Many key questions remain. Allowing a service member to transition from one gender to another means wearing new uniforms, adhering to new grooming rules and aligning with the physical fitness standards linked to promotions. Who will decide when that transition is officially recognized? A commander? Health care professionals? The Pentagon bureaucracy’s personnel office? Individual service members?
In addition the issue raises a host of medical issues. Will the military health care system pay for hormone therapy or sex-reassignment procedures? How much leave time will that warrant? Will any of those procedures impact a service member’s eligibility to deploy, fly or conduct other military missions?