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Transgender troops testifying for the first time to Congress on Wednesday said transitioning to another sex made them stronger, while Pentagon officials defended the Trump administration's desire to bar people like them from enlisting in the future. Army Capt. Alivia Stehlik, an infantry officer and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. and Ranger School, told lawmakers she became a more "effective soldier" after she transitioned from male to female in 2017. (2/27)

Army Capt. Alivia Stehlik commissioned as an infantry officer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., graduated from Ranger School and lived a “soldier’s life,” she said, spending long periods in the field before becoming a physical therapist in the service. After the Obama administration rescinded a ban in 2016 on serving while transgender, she wanted to do something else as a soldier, too: transition from male to female. (Lamothe, 2/27)

House Democrats blasted the Pentagon policy on Wednesday that bans most transgender troops from serving, charging that barring them would damage military readiness by cashiering seasoned troops. Rep. Jackie Speier, chairman of the House Armed Service Committee's personnel panel, branded the Pentagon policy "bogus." The Pentagon has been seeking to overturn a 2016 policy that allowed transgender troops to serve openly and receive treatment. (Brook, 2/27)

Nearly 60 percent of Americans said transgender people should be allowed to serve in the U.S. armed forces, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted ahead of a congressional panel's review, set for Wednesday, of Trump administration curbs on transgender service. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 ruled in favor of letting the Trump administration enforce its policy of barring many transgender people from the military. Implementation of the policy has been delayed by legal wrangling in a lower court case that the Supreme Court did not directly address. (2/27)