The Pentagon is seen on Oct. 21, 2021. (Robert H. Reid/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stopped new transgender recruits from joining the military and halted medical procedures for service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria, according to a new memorandum.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused,” Hegseth wrote in the memo dated Friday and filed Monday with the U.S. District Court in Washington. “All unscheduled, scheduled or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused.”
Hegseth said individuals with gender dysphoria already in the military would be “treated with dignity and respect.”
The move follows four executive orders signed Jan. 27 by President Donald Trump that directly impacted the U.S. military, including revising the Defense Department’s transgender policy.
Trump’s executive order does not ban transgender troops but requires the Defense Department to update medical standards “to establish high standards of readiness, lethality … and integrity.” It will end the use of pronouns in the military “that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex” and prohibits men from “sharing sleeping, changing, or bathing in facilities” designated for women. The order also applies to women using facilities for men.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 31, 2025, participates in a live virtual interview with “Fox and Friends” from the Pentagon. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
The executive order also directed the Pentagon to determine a policy for service members based on readiness within 30 days.
A U.S. judge last week asked lawyers for Trump’s administration to ensure six troops who sued to stop the executive order targeting transgender troops are not removed from service before further court proceedings are held, Reuters reported.
Former President Joe Biden ended Trump’s de facto ban on transgender service members and allowed individuals who meet military entrance qualifications to enlist, serve in their self-identified gender and access care deemed medically necessary for gender transition.
In July 2017, Trump issued a series of tweets announcing his intention to ban transgender men and women from serving “in any capacity.” The Pentagon’s de facto ban on transgender men and women enlisting in the military went into effect in April 2019, following nearly two years of legal battles launched after transgender service members and military hopefuls sought to halt its implementation.
The Pentagon long insisted its policy was not a blanket ban because of its protections for those transgender service members who came out after the 2016 policy, and a waiver process that could allow some transgender people to join the military.
But the policy barred nearly all people diagnosed with gender dysphoria — described by the American Psychiatric Association as “a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify.” It did allow people to enlist with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria who had doctor certification that they had remained stable in their biological sex for 36 months. It disqualified all people who had medically transitioned their sex.
The Pentagon in March 2021, when the department unveiled the policy change to allow transgender troops, estimated the number of service members who identified as transgender ranged from 1,000 to 8,000. The Human Rights Campaign in November estimated a ban on transgender troops could impact about 15,000 service members.
A Gallup poll published Monday said 58% of Americans favored allowing openly transgender individuals serving in the military, down from 71% in 2019.
