Washington: US President Joe Biden has reversed his predecessor’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military, moving swiftly on a social issue as he broadly exerted the power of his office to prohibit discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

With Lloyd Austin, his new secretary of defence, and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, beside him in the Oval Office, Biden signed an executive order restoring protections put in place in 2016 by then president Barack Obama that had opened up the ranks of the armed services to transgender people.

“What I’m doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” he said from behind the Resolute Desk moments before putting his signature on the document.

The President’s action came less than a week after he began his presidency with another wide-ranging civil rights executive order directing the government to implement protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US based on the landmark Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County last year. The court held that employers violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when they fired a long-time staff member shortly after the employee revealed that he or she was homosexual or transgender.