WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced Monday that it would allow transgender members of the military to serve openly starting next year, marking an end to a longstanding policy that barred them from the armed forces.

In an echo of the Defense Department’s repeal of the ban on gays in uniform four years ago, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he had directed the armed forces to devise new rules over the next six months that would allow transgender troops to serve except in situations “where objective, practical impediments are identified.”

“We must ensure that everyone who’s able and willing to serve has the full and equal opportunity to do so, and we must treat all our people with the dignity and respect they deserve,” Carter said in a statement. He called the military’s current regulations “outdated” and said they were “causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions.”

An estimated 15,500 transgender people serve in the military, but have been forced to conceal their identity, according to the Williams Institute, a center at the University of California Los Angeles that studies the gay and transgender populations.

Over the years, military officials have suggested the ban was necessary to protect troops in “austere environments,” where they may not have easy access to medical care.

But pressure has mounted on the military and the Obama administration in recent years as societal views of transgender people have changed, and since the relatively smooth transition after the 2011 lifting of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that barred gays from openly serving.

DISCRIMINATION ‘IS FALLING APART’

The announcement drew immediate cheers from gay rights groups, who said it was long overdue.

“Today’s Department of Defense announcement is a positive sign that they understand that open trans military service is desirable and inevitable,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement. “The Pentagon’s rickety system of discrimination against us is falling apart.”

Groups that support that ban said the change would be a distraction and accused the administration of having misplaced priorities.

“It’s time that we allow the military to focus on its only job: Defending our country against its enemies,” retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said in a statement.

The military has long banned transgender service members for medical reasons, with references in medical policies as early as the 1960s, probably in connection with people who were intersex or had ambiguous genitalia, said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a gay rights group.

In the 1980s, he said, the policy began to be more regularly applied to people who identified as transgender.

Supporters of the ban have also suggested that transgender people may have mental deficiencies and be at risk of suicide. “If these men and women are confused about their gender, what’s to keep them from being confused about their mission?” the Family Research Council in a newsletter earlier this year.

Gay rights groups have aggressively pushed back against that logic, pointing to the relatively smooth transition after the military lifted its policy against open service by gays and lesbians four years ago. And they point to studies and reports suggesting open transgender service would not be harmful, including a report last year authored by former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who found the ban itself more damaging. “There is no compelling medical reason for the ban,” the report concluded.

A MORE ACCEPTING ENVIRONMENT

Many have remained in the closet, fearful of running afoul of the ban. Others have been able to serve with relative openness because of sympathetic or tolerant commanders, colleagues and military doctors. In interviews, some of these service members say they have noticed a more accepting environment in the military as views have changed about transgender people in the broader society.

Still, several members are discharged every year under the policy, while others find their secret unacceptable to keep or too heavy to bear and decide to leave service, advocacy groups say.

In recent months, there were signs that the military was changing course on the issue, with the Army, Navy and Air Force all adjusting their policies to make it more difficult to discharge transgender members. Shortly after Defense secretary Carter was sworn in this year, he suggested at a town hall meeting with troops in Afghanistan that he was “open-minded” about transgender service.

In addition, last month, a senior airman attended the White House’s gay-pride celebration – in the uniform of his preferred gender, which is a departure from current Air Force policy, groups said.

The policy change announced Monday, which was first reported by the Associated Press, comes two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Gay rights groups praised the announcement as a long-overdue but welcome shift. They said six months was more than enough time to adjust policies and prepare troops.

‘ON EQUAL FOOTING’

“This is a tribute to the honorable military service of thousands of transgender Americans. There is much more to do, but the Secretary’s clear intent to treat transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines with the same dignity and on equal footing with other service members aligns with the core values of our Armed Forces,” said Allyson Robinson, Army veteran and director of policy at SPARTA, a group that advocates for the rights of transgender people in the military.

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