President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Feb. 26, 2025, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listen.
Transgender service members will be separated from the U.S. military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday, essentially banning them from joining or serving in the military.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way — at one point saying that a man identifying as a woman was “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
This month, the Pentagon had said that the U.S. military will no longer allow transgender individuals to join and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members.
Wednesday’s late-evening memo goes further.
The memo said that the Pentagon must create a procedure to identify troops who are transgender within 30 days and then within 30 days of that, must separate them from the military.
“It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity,” said the memo, dated Feb. 26.
“This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria or who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria,” it added.
The military has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, according to Department of Defense data. Although transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officials say the number is in the low thousands.
In a Pentagon memorandum dated Wednesday, the Department of Defense (DOD) is requesting transgender service members be identified in 30 days, then separated.
Newsweek reached out to the DOD via email for comment late Wednesday night.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has heavily pushed policies and issued several executive orders rolling back rights for transgender people since beginning his second term on January 20.
The president signed a ban on openly transgender people serving in the military in an executive order on January 27, claiming that transgender troops negatively impact “excellence” and “readiness.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth later issued a memo saying that transgender people would no longer be allowed to enlist in the military, while asserting that service members with gender dysphoria who are already in the military would be “treated with dignity and respect.”
The fate of Trump’s ban, a policy that was also in place for a time during his first term, is uncertain amid an ongoing court challenge.
What To Know
According to the memo signed by Darin S. Selnick, who performs duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the secretaries of the military departments will identify transgender troops within 30 days.
Then the memo states separation actions will commence for those service members “who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria and are not granted a waiver.”
Trump’s executive order, signed one week after his inauguration, directed the Pentagon, and ultimately Hegseth, to update guidance “regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service and to rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.”
Trump’s order also said transgender troops “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The memo dated on Wednesday echoed Trump’s order, saying that people with gender dysphoria “are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
What People Are Saying
Selnick, in the DOD memo: “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 gender dysphoria or who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who presides over a lawsuit on the ban, ripped the policy during an exchange with Trump administration lawyers in court last week: “This is a policy from the president of the United States affecting thousands of people … to call an entire group of people lying, dishonest people, who are undisciplined, immodest and have no integrity. How is that anything other than showing animus? … It is frankly ridiculous.”
Advocacy group American Veterans for Equal Rights, in a news release issued after Trump’s ban was announced late last month: “President Donald Trump’s ban on Transgender military service members jeopardizes national security by removing thousands of highly skilled personnel from the critical job of safeguarding our nation from attack.”
