Pentagon Seeks To Lift Injunction On Trans Military Ban, Releases New Guidance For Service Members
Despite an active court order blocking the ban, the Pentagon is releasing a new protocol for identifying—and removing—trans troops.
A federal judge may have blocked Trump’s ban on transgender military troops from taking effect, but the administration is treating that like a minor hurdle. On Friday, the Pentagon released a slate of new guidance on how it will identify trans troops in order to remove them from service.
The move is aligned with Trump’s February executive order banning transgender troops from serving in the military. In this order, the president wrote, “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.” Shortly after the executive order, the Pentagon released a policy memo saying it aimed to have removed all trans troops by June 25.
According to this latest Pentagon memo, the Department of Defense will now review the medical records of active service members, then send them self-assessment questionnaires meant to determine whether they have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or have in the past. If the answer is yes, they’ll become ineligible for service.
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However, the new guidelines directly contradict US District Judge Ana Reyes’s preliminary injunction blocking the ban, which she filed just last week. At the time, Reyes wrote in her 79-page opinion that the ban was a “solution in search of a problem” that relied on misleading data to justify its policies, which “rest on irrational prejudice.”
While the Pentagon does acknowledge that its new guidelines can’t currently go into effect due to the injunction, the Justice Department has already asked the judge to lift her order. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X, “We are appealing this decision, and we will win.” Lawyers for the Justice Department have asked Judge Reyes to keep her injunction on hold while the appeal is pending.
These guidelines are the Trump administration’s latest move to eradicate transgender troops not just from active-duty service, but from all military life. Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would no longer offer gender-affirming care to veterans not already receiving treatment. VA Secretary Doug Collins presented the move as a money-saving measure, even though gender-affirming treatments make up fewer than 0.12% of the VA budget. In addition to eradicating gender-affirming care, the VA order also required trans veterans to use the VA bathrooms consistent with their assigned sex at birth, not their gender identity.
