Transgender troops have been barred from joining the military and existing service members are no longer able to receive gender-affirming care, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a Feb. 7 memo.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” said the memo, which was addressed to senior Pentagon leadership. The banned care, according to the memo, includes “newly initiated gender-affirming hormone therapy.”
Hegseth’s move aligns the military with President Donald Trump’s discriminatory and transphobic executive order, known as “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which was signed on Jan. 27 and set out to reimplement a policy similar to the one stemming from the president’s first term when he banned transgender troops.
“The Department [of Defense] must ensure it is building ‘One Force’ without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence,” the memo stated. “Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated.”
The wording of the executive order, however, suggested that the policy could be even broader than the one implemented during Trump’s first term — even going as far as denouncing individuals who identify as transgender “in one’s personal life.”
However, the fate of current trans service members appears to be unclear. While the memo acknowledged that “individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect,” it also noted that the Department of Defense would be providing “additional policy and implementation guidance” to individuals in the military “with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria.”
The memo came one day after Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation filed a federal lawsuit in US District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of a half-dozen trans service members, a trans individual seeking to join the military, and a Seattle-based civil and human rights organization called Gender Justice League.
One of the plaintiffs in the case, US Navy Lieutenant Commander Geirid Morgan, who has 14 years of service, stressed in a written statement that trans service members “meet the same standards and requirements to serve as any other warfighter and we have earned our place in the military.”
“Our nation has invested billions of dollars into our military training and experience, and we have invested years of our lives and countless hours of hard work in service to this nation,” said Morgan, who spoke in her personal capacity. “I am truly hopeful that our case filing will ensure that those investments don’t go to waste. Our dedication and our sacrifice, as well as that of our families, is not worth any less to the military or the American people.”
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) also filed a federal lawsuit in the same court in late January on behalf of six other service members.
“President Trump’s repeated targeting of transgender service members is a stain on our military,” Shannon Minter, NCLR’s legal director, said after filing the lawsuit. “Anyone who meets the standards should be able to serve. There are already thousands of transgender service members currently in the military who have met the standards and more than proven themselves.”
Trump’s relentless attacks on transgender individuals — including service members — have coincided with a dip in support for trans troops. A Gallup poll in 2019 found that 71% of Americans supported trans service members, but that number dropped to 58% in the same poll released this month. Trump’s campaign spent millions on an overwhelming blitz of blatantly transphobic television ads during the 2024 presidential campaign.
