A report emerged on Sunday claiming that President-elect Donald J. Trump will issue an executive order on Day One to ban transgender military members. The report claims as many as 15,000 active military members will be “medically discharged” and deemed unfit to serve.
Pete Hegseth, who has been nominated to be Secretary of Defense, called including transgender people in the military “pushing boundaries” in a recent podcast.
In 2017, Trump announced a ban on transgender individuals in the military through Twitter. He cited consultation with generals and military experts while announcing the plan.
According to reports, Trump’s policy went into effect in 2019. It allowed individuals who were currently serving and had already received a gender dysphoria diagnosis to continue to serve in their preferred gender, receive hormone treatments and undergo sex-change surgery. However, anyone with gender dysphoria who is taking hormones or already underwent a gender transition would not be allowed to enlist. Those serving who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria after the policy went into effect would have to serve in their sex assigned at birth and would not be allowed to take hormones or receive sex-change surgery.
Senator Joni Ernst has advocated for transgender individuals to serve in the military.
