A Pentagon court filing revealing the specifics of the U.S. government’s military enrolment standards says personnel who have been diagnosed with or treated for gender dysphoria will no longer be eligible for service.
The policy was included in legal documents as part of a courtroom challenge against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban transgender troops from military service.
Similar to the executive order signed in late January, the policy, filed Wednesday, suggests that allowing transgender individuals would undermine the core values of the military.
The filing says the “lethality ” and “integrity” of the military is “inconsistent” with transitioning genders.
It also states that gender is “immutable, unchanging during a person’s life,” the AP reports.
There are two exceptions to the rule outlined in the filing: If a transgender person can prove on a case-by-case basis that they unequivocally support “war-fighting activities” they will be permitted to serve, according to the AP.
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In addition, if an existing service member with gender dysphoria can prove they support a war-fighting need, have never gone through a gender transition, and are stable in their biological sex over a period of 36 months “without clinically significant distress,” they will be permitted to serve.
Transgender rights advocates argue that Trump’s order is an outright ban on their presence in the military.
Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the organization challenging the policy in court, told The Independent that “the ruling made very clear the order was to get rid of all transgender people and not allow them to serve in the military.”
A memo shared with Pentagon leadership on Feb. 26 gave staff 30 days to identify all transgender troops and instructed they be removed by no later than June 25.
Pentagon leadership must “establish procedures and implement steps to identify service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria within 30 days of this memorandum,” it says, adding that trans troops will have the option to voluntarily step down, which would exempt them from having to return any bonuses they may have received prior to the issuing of the memo.
This isn’t the first time Trump has proposed legislation regarding transgender people. In January, he signed an executive order aimed at slashing federal supports for gender transitions for people under the age of 19.
“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” Trump said in a statement.
The order directed federally funded insurance programs, such as Medicaid, to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care and the Department of Justice to clamp down on the practice.
The government’s actions are also being called into question by former military leaders.
Brenda Sue Fulton, who served as a U.S government official and military officer, said on Bluesky on Thursday that “asking trans troops to voluntarily resign is a signal that they [the government] know this isn’t legal.”
“We have fought this before and we’re ready to fight this again …” she wrote in a separate post.
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— With files from The Associated Press
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