The Pentagon said in a memo Wednesday that the U.S. will evacuate trans forces from the military unless exempted on a case-by-case basis.
The memorandum was published on February 26 as part of a court application that challenged President Donald Trump’s executive order in late January that was intended to ban military service for transgender personnel.
“The current diagnosis or history or showing symptoms will be processed to separate from military service, consistent with gender dysphoria,” the memorandum said.
It said that as long as the government retains interest in service members who directly support combat capabilities, it can be “exempted on a case-by-case basis.”
To obtain such exemption, the troops must show that they have never attempted a transition and demonstrate that “the gender of the service member is stable for 36 consecutive months without clinical clinical significance or clinical serious distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas”.
Another Pentagon memo released earlier this month banned transgender people from joining the military and added gender transition treatment to others who are already in uniform.
The latest memo also states that “Applicants for military services…have a human diagnosis or medical history of gender irritability or displaying symptoms are eligible for military service, as are transgender hormone treatments or history of gender redistribution or genital surgery”. ”
Disqualified applicants can also receive exemptions if they join the military’s “striking government interest” and are “willing and able to comply with all applicable standards, including those related to the applicant’s S£X”.
Trans Americans have faced changing military service policies in recent years, with the Democratic administration trying to allow them to serve publicly, and Trump repeatedly attempts to keep them away from their ranks.
During Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president, the U.S. military lifted a ban on transgender forces in 2016.
Under this policy, transtroopers already served have been allowed to do so publicly and will begin accepting trans recruits by July 1, 2017.
However, the first Trump administration delayed the date until 2018 and then decided to revoke the policy altogether.
Trump’s controversial restrictions on trans military service (to tackle challenges from various courts) eventually came into effect in April 2019, after a lasting legal battle stretched to top courts in the United States.
Trump’s democratic successor, Joe Biden, turned restrictions a few days after taking office in 2021, saying all Americans who are eligible to serve should be able to do so.
After returning to office in January, Trump issued an executive order that once again targeted transgender forces, saying: “Expressing false ‘gender identity’ that differs from an individual’s gender does not meet the strict standards necessary for military service.”
