The United States military has announced it will no longer accept transgender people hoping to enlist, or facilitate gender affirmation procedures for active service members.
The memo filed at the US District Court in Washington, DC, on Monday is the latest effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to roll back protections for transgender people.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in the memo, which was dated February 7.
“All unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused.”
The Trump administration has framed the restriction of transgender rights in the military as a necessary step in ensuring “military readiness”. It also has lambasted what it terms the promotion of “radical gender ideology” within the armed forces, part of its larger campaign against diversity initiatives.
But critics say Monday’s memo and related measures are aimed at erasing transgender identity, perpetuating discrimination, and forcing transgender service members to live in secrecy and fear.
Advocates say as many as 15,000 transgender people currently serve in the US military, out of a population of 1.3 million active-duty service members.
An ongoing campaign
In the US, there is relatively widespread support for transgender soldiers and military members. The research firm Gallup published a report on Monday that found 58 percent of Americans approved of allowing openly transgender people to serve in the military.
But Gallup noted that this number had declined from earlier highs. In 2019, for instance, the approval rating was 71 percent. By 2021, however, it had dropped to 66 percent – and then to 58 percent this year.
The firm noted that Republicans and, to a lesser extent, independents had driven the number down.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at transgender people during that time span. During his first term, from 2017 to 2021, he similarly moved to bar transgender people from military service.
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow”, he wrote over two posts in 2017, “transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military”.
Former President Joe Biden repealed that restriction. But as Trump took office for his second term this year, he renewed his campaign against transgender people, signing an executive order on his first day back denying the existence of “self-assessed gender identity”.
A few days later, on January 27, he signed another executive order, directed specifically at the military.
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order reads.
On February 3, a group of civil rights organisations filed for a temporary restraining order against Trump’s decision, on behalf of six transgender service members and two seeking to enlist.
They filed their petition to the US District Court in Washington, DC. As part of their complaint, they included testimony from a 28-year-old transgender woman, Miriam Perelson, who serves in the US military.
She was reportedly told she must either be classified as a man or be expelled from the military. She also explained that she was instructed to leave the women’s sleeping area and sleep on a cot in an empty classroom instead, in addition to being barred from using women’s restrooms.
“I’ve spent more than half my life in the Army, including combat in Afghanistan,” Army Sergeant Kate Cole, another plaintiff in the suit, said in a news release.
“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. That’s just wrong — and it destabilizes our armed forces.”
The campaign to restrict transgender rights, however, extends beyond the military.
On February 5, Trump also signed an order threatening to withhold funding for schools that allowed transgender women to participate in women’s sports.
And in the state of Utah on Monday, the state legislature approved a bill that bans transgender college students from living in dorms that are consistent with their gender identity, the first restriction of its kind to explicitly target transgender people at university housing.
“If you don’t fit in”, one Republican lawmaker said during debate over the bill, “then that’s your own fault”.