"What I'm doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform."

And with that, President Biden signed an executive order reversing the ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military.
The move followed through on a pledge Biden made during the campaign.

"This is a life-changing moment for me," said Nicolas Talbott of Lisbon. A moment that, for him, couldn't have come soon enough.

"I was involved in ROTC at Kent State (University) for about a year and I had to leave the program simply because I was transgender," said Talbott. "I've been working toward becoming an army officer for most of my adult life...so I'm very excited to be able to start this journey again."

As you might guess, that journey included plenty of letdowns.

"I was in the process of trying to enlist in the Air Force National Guard when (former) President Trump made his initial tweet stating that he was planning to bar transgender people from serving. That was probably one of the lowest points in my life in general," Talbott says.

But now - after years of court battles and spreading their message - Talbott and the thousands of other transgender military will be able to answer their country's call to serve.

"We've looked at the studies, we've looked at the 18 allied countries who already openly allow transgender service and we haven't been able to find a single reason why transgender people shouldn't be allowed to serve in the US military," said Talbott.

Once the official policy comes out and the requirements are put into place, Talbott says he plans to graduate with a master's degree in October and will be applying to Ph. D programs; he will also re-enroll in ROTC either in the Army or Air Force.