Following Trump’s executive order to ban transgender people from the military, the Pentagon is now saying that it will draft and submit a procedure to identify trans service members and begin discharging them.
Trump introduced a similar policy in 2017 during his first presidential term, which banned the military from accepting trans enlistees, according to The Washington Blade. But the current directive takes his previous actions a step further, removing personnel unless they are granted a special waiver.
When issuing his initial ban, Trump said being trans fundamentally “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” Trump issued his newest iteration of the ban via executive order on Jan. 27. The White House then moved to submit a formal policy to the Pentagon detailing how to carry out the order entitled “Prioritizing Military Readiness and Excellence.” The memo detailing the course of action for implementation of the order was released last month when LGBTQ+ advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the directive.
In February, the military announced it would discontinue providing gender affirming medical care, and would begin to turn away trans enlistees. Now, the Pentagon will begin identifying service members who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria,” in order to dismiss them. Some trans personnel may be considered for a waiver and can continue service “provided there is a compelling Government interest in accessing the applicant that directly supports war fighting capabilities.” Even worse, those eligible for a waiver must show at least 36 consecutive months of “stability in their sex assigned at birth without clinical distress or impairment of functioning, that they have never pursued medical transition, and that they are willing to adhere to the standards for their sex,” according to NBC News.
So essentially, they ask that if you are trans and want a waiver, then stop being trans. In addition, the memo also indicates that the Defense Department will now only recognize two sexes, and demand that service members use sex-separated spaces for sleeping, changing and bathrooms in alignment with their assigned sex at birth.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) filed a suit on behalf of six active-duty trans personnel and two trans enlistees. The organization argues that the order violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause via discrimination based on sex.
A plaintiff in this case, trans woman and Army sergeant Kate Cole said in a statement last week “I’ve spent more than half my life in the Army, including combat in Afghanistan…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.”
The LGBTQ+ community and its allies have argued that the ban fails to strengthen America’s defenses and despite the title of the order, the move actually diminishes militaristic “readiness and excellence.”
The exact number of trans service members is unknown, but ranges from the low thousands to as high as 15,000 according to The Washington Blade. Pink News reports that a study published nine years ago indicated there was anywhere between 1,320 and 6,630 trans personnel. The same study also found that the Department of Defense provided gender-affirming medical care to at least 1,892 active-duty service members between 2016 and 2021.
It is expected that transgender personnel will begin to be discharged over the next couple months.
