Trump issues order prohibiting openly transgender service members in the military

by Ashley Murray, Alabama Reflector
January 28, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed orders late Monday banning openly transgender service members from the U.S. military and suppressing any diversity initiatives, including prohibiting “un-American” concepts from military educational institutions.

An executive order published just before 11 p.m. Eastern under the title “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” expressly forbids from the armed services individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria, widely recognized by medical professionals as the incongruence between a person’s sex at birth and experienced gender.

The new policy, which revokes a 2021 Biden administration order allowing transgender people to serve, cites “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints,” as well as character, as reasons to prohibit the specific population’s service.

According to the order: “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.  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.”

Former President Joe Biden’s 2021 policy reversed Trump’s 2018 order banning openly trans military service members. A 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision temporarily upheld Trump’s ban.

Hegseth issuing directives

Trump on Monday night directed newly installed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “promptly issue directives for DoD to end invented and identification-based pronoun usage” and update department medical standards within 60 days.

The Pentagon referred all inquiries to the Defense Health Agency. The agency said Tuesday it needed more time to provide information on current statistics of transgender members of the military and health care costs.  

According to a 2018 report from the Palm Center, 8,980 transgender active duty troops and 5,727 reservists served in the U.S. armed forces at the time. The California-based think tank that studied LGBTQ+ bans in the military operated from 1998 to 2022.

A Military.com report in 2021 found that from Jan. 1, 2016 to May 14, 2021, the Defense Department spent $11.58 million on psychotherapy for service members with gender dysphoria. During that time, 637 service members received hormone therapy that totaled $340,000, and 243 received surgery at the cost of $3.1 million, according to the report.

Overall discretionary defense spending in 2021 totaled $742 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Criticism of order

Numerous advocacy groups denounced Trump’s order.

SPARTA Pride, a group of transgender current and former service members, issued a statement Tuesday defending thousands of transgender troops who  “currently fill critical roles in combat arms, aviation, nuclear engineering, law enforcement, and military intelligence, many requiring years of specialized training and expertise. Transgender troops have deployed to combat zones, served in high-stakes missions, and demonstrated their ability to strengthen unit cohesion and morale.”

The statement continues, “While some transgender troops do have surgery, the recovery time and cost is minimal, and is scheduled so as not to impact deployments or mission readiness (all of which is similar to a non-emergent minor knee surgery). The readiness and physical capabilities of transgender service members is not different from that of other service members.”

Members of the Congressional Equality Caucus described Trump’s order as “beyond shameful.”

“Our military has invested millions of dollars into training these brave Americans who signed up to serve their nation. Now, despite their sacrifices, President Trump is unlawfully and unconstitutionally calling for them to be kicked to the curb simply because he doesn’t like who they are,” caucus chair Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.

Abolishing DEI offices

Under an additional directive Monday night, the president ordered Hegseth and new Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “abolish every DEI office” within their departments and any “vestiges of DEI offices, such as sub-offices, programs, elements, or initiatives established to promote a race-based preferences system that subverts meritocracy, perpetuates unconstitutional discrimination, and promotes divisive concepts or gender ideology.”

DEI is shorthand for diversity, equity and inclusion. The Trump administration titled the executive order “Restoring America’s Fighting Force.”

Hegseth and Noem have 30 days to issue guidance on closing the offices and halting prohibited activities. They must report back to the White House on their progress in 180 days.

Among the initiatives that must cease, according to the order, are the teaching or promoting of any “divisive concepts” of race or sex at armed forces educational institutions, among other topics the order describes as “un-American.”

Last updated 11:17 a.m., Jan. 28, 2025

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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