President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense has issued a memo instructing military leaders to identify transgender service members within 30 days and separate them from their ranks within an additional 30 days for eventual discharge under Trump’s anti-trans military ban.
The memo, submitted alongside other government documents in lawsuits challenging the ban, provides the first inside look at the ban’s implementation. Lesbian federal Judge Ana Reyes declined to block Trump’s ban until the expiration of Trump’s 60-day deadline for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to issue details explaining the ban’s implementation.
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“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” the memo reads.
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Trans service members may apply for a waiver on a case-by-case basis if there’s a “compelling government interest in retaining” them to support “warfighting capabilities,” the memo adds. However, to qualify, a soldier must demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability” in their sex “without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”
The memo echoed Trump’s insults against trans service members, writing, “It is the policy of the United States government to establish high standards for service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity… This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with [a history of symptoms of] gender dysphoria.”
While hearing legal challenges against the ban, Judge Reyes noted that the language in Trump’s executive order exhibited “unadulterated animus” against trans individuals.
Reyes said, “As far as I know, among [the trans soldiers challenging this ban], they have over 60 years of military service… [and] we are dealing with the president of the United States calling a group of people who have served their country — who … have made America safer — calling them liars.”
SPARTA Pride, a trans military advocacy group, said thousands of “fully qualified” trans soldiers are currently serving in the military.
“No policy will ever erase transgender Americans’ contribution to history, warfighting, or military excellence,” the group 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.”
Two legal challenges have been filed against Trump’s ban, the first at the end of January and the second in early February. Both noted that Hegseth has informed military recruiters to stop accepting trans recruits.
The second lawsuit says that the Trump administration discriminated against trans people based purely on sex “without even a legitimate justification, let alone the important, exceedingly persuasive, or compelling one required.” The lawsuit additionally says the ban “burdens and chills” the plaintiffs’ exercise of free speech, making them deny their trans identity in their professional and private lives, even though the military allowed out trans people to serve at least twice in the past.
A 2016 study by the RAND Corporation found that the cost of trans-related medical care is exceedingly small relative to the Department of Defense’s overall healthcare costs, that trans people do not harm military readiness, and that foreign militaries have successfully enlisted trans military service members without any negative effects on readiness, effectiveness, or unit cohesion.
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