The US navy will now not permit transgender people to affix the armed forces and can cease performing or facilitating procedures related to gender transition for service members, in accordance with a memo from protection secretary Pete Hegseth filed in court docket Monday.
Hegseth’s memo comes after Donald Trump signed an government order in January that took intention at transgender troops in a private method. The president’s order had stated {that a} man figuring out as a girl was “not in keeping with the humility and selflessness required of a service member”.
To that finish, the memo from Hegseth on Monday – filed with the US district court docket in Washington DC – stated: “Efficient instantly, all new accessions for people with a historical past of gender dysphoria are paused.
“All unscheduled, scheduled, or deliberate medical procedures related to affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused.”
Hegseth’s memo added: “The division should guarantee it’s constructing ‘one power’ with out subgroups outlined by something aside from capability or mission adherence. Efforts to separate our troops alongside traces of identification weaken our power and make us susceptible. Such efforts should not be tolerated or accommodated.”
The memo from Hegseth cited Trump’s government order, stating: “Because the president clearly said … ‘expressing a false “gender identification” divergent from a person’s intercourse can’t fulfill the rigorous requirements mandatory for navy service’.”
Hegseth stated people with gender dysphoria who’re already within the navy can be “handled with dignity and respect”, and the below secretary of protection for personnel and readiness would offer further particulars on what this might imply.
The navy has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, in accordance with US division of protection knowledge. Whereas transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officers say the quantity is within the low 1000’s.
A ballot from Gallup printed on Monday stated 58% of Individuals favored permitting brazenly transgender people serving within the navy – however the help had declined from 71% in 2019.
A US federal decide just lately requested legal professionals for Trump’s second presidential administration to make sure that six navy members who sued to cease the chief order concentrating on transgender troops aren’t faraway from service earlier than additional court docket proceedings are held.
Civil rights organizations had filed for a brief restraining order after a service member alleged that she was informed she should both be categorised as a person or be separated from the navy.
Miriam Perelson, a 28-year-old feminine transgender service member based mostly at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, had stated she was required to go away the sleeping space for feminine troops. She was given a cot in an empty classroom and never allowed to make use of the feminine restrooms.
On Thursday, Lambda Authorized and the Human Rights Marketing campaign filed a lawsuit on behalf of three senior Naval officers in opposition to the Trump administration over his government order to ban transgender individuals from the navy.
Within the lawsuit, two of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy teams wrote: “Transgender service members take the identical oath as each different service member to serve our nation and place themselves in hurt’s method – probably paying the final word worth – in service of our nation. And to be clear, our nation wants prepared, ready, and keen service members to face up and defend our freedoms.”
It added: “However the 2025 navy ban turns them away and kicks them out for no legit cause. Slightly, it baselessly declares all transgender individuals unfit to serve, insults and demeans them, and cruelly describes each one among them as incapable of ‘an honorable, truthful, and disciplined life-style, even in a single’s private life’, based mostly solely as a result of they’re transgender. These assertions are, after all, false.”
Reuters contributed reporting
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