Pentagon will give other service members 30 days to self-identify as trans while it enforces recently cleared ban
The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 service members who identify as transgender out of the military and give others 30 days to self-identify, under a new directive issued on Thursday.
Buoyed by Tuesday’s supreme court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender individuals in the military, the defense department will then begin going through medical records to identify others who have not come forward.
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who issued the latest memo, made his views clear after the court’s decision.
“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth was more blunt, telling a conference that his department was leaving wokeness and weakness behind. “No more pronouns,” he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa.
Department officials have said it is difficult to determine exactly how many transgender service members there are, but medical records will show those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, who show symptoms or are being treated.
Those troops would then be involuntarily forced out of the service.
Officials have said that as of 9 December 2024, there were 4,240 troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the active duty, national guard and reserve. But they acknowledge the number may be higher.
The memo released on Thursday mirrors one sent out in February, but any action was stalled at that point by several lawsuits.
