US to begin removal of 1,000 transgender troops under Pentagon directive

The US Supreme Court on May 6 allowed the Trump administration to begin executing its ban on transgender military service members

The Pentagon will immediately start removing up to 1,000 openly transgender service members from the military and give others 30 days to come forward, according to a new directive issued Thursday.

 

Following the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday permitting the Trump administration to implement its ban on transgender military personnel, the Defence Department will begin reviewing medical records to identify individuals who haven't come forward.

 

While officials admit it's unclear how many transgender individuals are currently serving, medical documentation will help identify those diagnosed with gender dysphoria, exhibiting symptoms, or receiving treatment. Those troops would then be involuntarily forced out of the service.

 

  On May 6, the US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to implement its ban on transgender military service members, overriding a lower court's halt on the policy.  The three liberal justices on the Court dissented from this decision.

 

Following his second inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting transgender individuals from military service. In response, the Defence Department immediately stopped transgender enlistment and discharged currently serving transgender personnel. 

 

This policy mirrors a previous transgender military ban from Trump's first administration. In 2019, the Supreme Court allowed that earlier ban to remain in effect, though President Biden later reversed it after taking office.

 

The Defence Department’s rationale 

The Defence Department didn’t explicitly prohibit all transgender military personnel but instead classified “gender dysphoria”- defined as the significant disconnect between one's experienced gender and birth-assigned gender -- as a disqualifying medical condition for military service. According to the Pentagon, approximately 0.2 per cent of US military members experience gender dysphoria. 

 

Current and aspiring transgender service members contested the ban, led by Emily Schilling, a Navy pilot with almost twenty years of service and over 60 combat missions. The group argued that the policy violated their constitutional right to equal protection.

The government defended its position by arguing that since the policy targeted the 'medical condition' of gender dysphoria rather than transgender status itself,  the ban did not discriminate against anyone based on transgender identity.

 

  What did the judge say on transgender ban?

 

Judge Benjamin Settle, who serves in Washington state, had rejected this reasoning. He characterised the policy as “a blanket prohibition on transgender service”. He temporarily suspended the policy’s enforcement while he reviewed the case. The Trump administration offered no explanation as to why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly over the past four years with no evidence of problems, should suddenly be banned, Settle wrote.

 

Settle stated that the administration couldn’t claim that banning individuals with gender dysphoria was distinct from banning transgender people, arguing that “common sense” made it clear they were effectively the same. The judge is an appointee of former President George W Bush and a former captain in the US Army Judge Advocate General Corps.

 

After a federal appeals court in San Francisco declined to step in, the Trump administration took the issue to the Supreme Court, requesting that the ban be reinstated.