LGBT advocacy groups are blasting the Pentagon’s decision to delay for six months a plan to allow transgender people to enlist in the military.

The decision, reportedly announced in a memo from Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday, gives military branches six months to prepare for the enlistment of transgender soldiers.

The service chiefs last week made the recommendation for Mattis to delay the policy. The Army and the Air Force had previously asked for a two-year delay to the policy.

After news of the delay broke, several LGBT organizations slammed the decision. The Palm Center, an LGBT think tank, issued a statement hitting Mattis’s decision, saying it will “compromise military readiness.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Members of Congress are denigrating the value of military service by transgender troops, and Service Chiefs are pressuring Secretary Mattis to continue the transgender enlistment ban despite having no new arguments or data to back up their long-discredited assertions,” Palm Center director Aaron Belkin said. “Stonewalling on full inclusion will, just like ‘don't ask, don't tell,’ compromise military readiness.”

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also fired back at the delay, saying they were “disappointed” in Mattis’s decision.

“Each day that passes without the policy in place restricts the armed forces’ ability to recruit the best and the brightest, regardless of gender identity,” HRC press secretary Stephen Peters said.

“We are disappointed in this needless delay because the thousands of highly trained and qualified transgender service members openly and proudly serving our nation today have proven that what matters is the ability to accomplish the mission, not their gender identity.”

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter lifted the ban barring transgender people from serving in the military last year. Carter set a July 1, 2017 deadline at the time for the military to allow transgender individuals to begin enlisting.

Transgender people already serving in the military are currently allowed to do so openly, but no new recruits have been allowed to enlist.