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U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Thursday that transgender military members would now be allowed to serve openly and without fear of being discharged or separated from the military.

The policy will be phased in over a year-long period.

“Our mission is to defend this country and we don’t want barriers unrelated to a person’s qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining … who can best accomplish the mission,” Carter said in . “We have to have access to 100 percent of America’s population for our all-volunteer force to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them.”

There’s no certain data on the number of transgender individuals serving in the military, but Carter pointed to a RAND study that analyzed already existing studies. RAND estimated around 2,500 active members and 1,500 reserve members were transgender. The upper end of their estimates found as many as 7,000 active members and 4,000 reserve members could be transgender.

The United Kingdom, Israel and Australia all allow transgender individuals in their militaries to serve openly, Carter said.

The policy change will be a welcome change for service members like former Staff Sgt. Shane Ortega, who served in Hawaii but faced some opposition in his career due to his gender identity, according to his  page and .

Ortega has been a strong advocate for transgender rights in the military.

A photo posted by Shane Ortega (@minihulkin) on Jul 10, 2015 at 10:01pm PDT

He faced suspension from his Army helicopter crew chief duties after medical tests showed hormones he took for transitioning peaked his testosterone levels, according to the Washington Post. Because Ortega legally changed his gender after joining the military, computer systems still labeled him as female — which meant he had to wear the woman’s dress uniform on special occasions, according to the article.

Despite that, Ortega, who served in two Iraq combat tours and one Afghanistan tours, lauded his experience working in the military in a , calling it “a gateway to a better life.”
A year down the road, open transgender service members won’t grapple with those same issues thanks to Department of Defense guidelines to be released soon, Carter said.

By Oct. 1, the DOD will release guidelines for leading currently serving transgender individuals and medical doctors aiding service members in transition. Service members will also be able to change their gender in the department’s system and receive medical care for their transition at that time (some military doctors already provide these services).

Over the next nine months, military personnel will receive detailed training about the guidelines for transgender service members. Commanders, medical staff and recruiters are among those who will undergo training.

After training is completed – but no later than July 1, 2017 – transgender applicants and current military members will be held to the same physical and mental standards.

Carter’s announcement marks the third military gender equality milestone in the Obama administration. Last December, Carter declared that women were allowed to with “no exceptions.” In 2010, President Barack Obama the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevented open gays and lesbians from serving in the military.

Hawaii has the highest percentage LGBT population of any state in the nation at 5.1 percent, a showed.