MTV has invited active-duty transgender service members to attend the 2017 Video Music Awards following President Donald Trump's Twitter post last month that announced transgender individuals would no longer be allowed to serve in the U.S. military.
"MTV has invited transgender members of the U.S. armed forces to the 2017 Video Music Awards and we would be honored if they could attend," MTV president Christopher McCarthy said in a statement.
The television channel must first get approval from the Pentagon to host the active-duty members, who are under certain restrictions to participate in national public events, the Washington Examiner reported. Department of Defense officials are reviewing the request.
"At this time the Department of Defense is reviewing the parameters of the request," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick told CNN.
Trump tweeted on July 26 that the Defense Department would no longer accept or allow transgender people to serve "in any capacity."
"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump said in the tweet. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
After his announcement, Pentagon officials said the Department of Defense would not enact any changes until they had more information from the White House.
The Pentagon expects to receive further guidance from the White House in the coming days, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The guidance from the Trump administration is expected to give Defense Secretary Jim Mattis discretion to consider a service member's ability to deploy when deciding whether to separate currently servicing transgender service members.
Transgender advocacy is not new for MTV. Over the past year, the network has replaced gender-specific categories with gender-neutral names in awards. Instead of "Man of the Year" or "Woman of the Year," the category might be, for example, "Artist of the Year."
"Any patriot who is putting their own life at risk to fight for our freedom and stands for quality is a hero to MTV, and to young people everywhere," McCarthy said in his statement.