Pentagon Begins Forcibly Discharging Trans Service Members
A Pentagon memo outlines how the Department of Defense will implement Trump's ban on trans service members, with most discharged in 60 days.
The Pentagon will start forcibly discharging transgender service members within 60 days unless an individual can obtain a special waiver to allow them to continue serving.
On Wednesday, February 26, the Pentagon issued a policy memo outlining how the U.S. Department of Defense is complying with an executive order by President Trump to prohibit transgender individuals from serving openly in the U.S. military.
Trump’s executive order claims that allowing transgender people to serve in the Armed Forces threatens military readiness and undermines unit cohesion.
It contradicts a 2016 RAND Corporation study, commissioned by the Pentagon, that found allowing transgender members to serve openly had no negative impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness.
In the February 26 memo, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense states that individuals who have been diagnosed with, or exhibit symptoms of, gender dysphoria “are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
Service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or have attempted or requested to transition through hormone therapy or surgery are disqualified from military service and will be discharged within the two months.
All discharges will be honorable, except in rare cases where an individual’s service record merits a lower designation.
Some transgender individuals may be considered for retention, on a case-by-case basis, if they can demonstrate that there is a “compelling government interest” in retaining them that directly supports “warfighting capabilities.”
To qualify for such a waiver, a trans service member must have remained consistent in their assigned sex at birth for 36 consecutive months and that their gender dysphoria has not impeded them from completing their mission. They must also prove that they never attempted to transition and have continued to adhere to standards of dress and grooming consistent with their assigned sex at birth.
Going forward, the Department of Defense will only recognize two sexes — male and female — as established at birth based on biological characteristics.
Service members must adhere to all personal grooming and uniform standards consistent with their sex, use only those personal changing, restroom, and shower facilities designated for that sex, and must use pronouns that align with their assigned sex at birth.
The memo also restates part of Trump’s executive order prohibiting Pentagon funds from being used to cover treatments for gender dysphoria, such as hormones or surgical interventions.
Opponents of the ban claim that, even for those few who obtain waivers, preventing transgender individuals from living and identifying at their jobs as transgender constitutes a complete ban on transgender military service.
“Any policy that prevents transgender people from serving as transgender people — whether through an outright ban or through requirements to serve in one’s birth sex — is a ban plain and simple,” U.S Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.
“While every transgender person has, at some point, lived in their birth sex — as everyone has — the point of gender transition is to live in a different sex. That’s what makes someone transgender: living in, or seeking to live in if one could, a sex different from their birth sex,” Cisneros added. “Requiring service in one’s birth sex requires a transgender individual to suppress being transgender — echoing the goal of discredited conversion therapy practices.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, of the District of Columbia, previously slammed the Trump administration over the ban during a hearing on whether to block the ban indefinitely.
Reyes suggested that the rhetoric Trump and other Republicans have used in justifying barring transgender individuals from serving may rise to the level of “unadulterated animus.”
“We are dealing with the president of the United States calling a group of people who have served their country, who, you have told me, have made America safer, calling them liars,” Reyes told Department of Justice attorney Jason Lynch, as reported by The Hill.
“This is a policy of the president of the United States that is affecting thousands of people, carte blanche, without any support that has been given by anyone,” Reyes continued, referring to the government’s claims about the alleged harms of transgender inclusion. “How is that anything other than showing animus?”
SPARTA Pride, an advocacy group for transgender service members, defended the qualifications of transgender individuals to serve in the military, noting that many have done so openly for the past decade, without incident.
“No policy will ever erase transgender Americans’ contribution to history, warfighting, or military excellence,” the organization said in a statement. “Transgender service members have a unique fighting spirit and will continue to defend the constitution and American Values no matter what lies ahead.”
Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive order slammed the Pentagon’s attempts to purge transgender individuals from the military.
“I’ve been military my entire life. I was born on a military base,” Ensign Dan Danridge, a student flight officer in the U.S. Navy and a plaintiff in one of the cases, said in a statement. “Every day I lace up my boots the same as everybody else. I pass the same tests as everybody else. Being transgender is irrelevant to my service. What matters is that I can complete the tasks that are critical to our mission.”
“I’ve spent more than half my life in the Army, including combat in Afghanistan,” U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Kate Cole, another plaintiff, said in a statement. “Removing qualified transgender soldiers like me means an exodus of experienced personnel who fill key positions and can’t be easily replaced, putting the burden on our fellow soldiers left behind. That’s just wrong — and it destabilizes our armed forces.”
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