LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article aims to apply the social construction of target populations to policy regarding transgender individuals in the U.S. military. After presenting an overview on diversity in the military, parallels were drawn between policy changes regarding the inclusion of openly transgender individuals in the military to those leading up to the inclusion of sexual minorities in the military. This article then details the controversy regarding the inclusion of transgender service members and compares the rationale given for their exclusion from the U.S. military to existing empirical research. Finally, the present work applies the social construction of target populations—a framework for understanding the public policy process—to discourse and policy decisions regarding transgender individuals and sexual minorities. By doing so, this article illustrates this theoretical framework’s potential for illustrating the importance of social constructions in understanding the policy.