US to remove trans troops from military unless they obtain waiver

WASHINGTON: The United States will remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, the Pentagon said in a Wednesday memo.

The memo became public as part of a court filing in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s late January executive order that was aimed at barring military service by transgender personnel.

“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” the memo said.

These troops may be “considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities,” it said.

To obtain such a waiver, troops must show that they have never attempted to transition, as well as demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”

Another Pentagon memo issued earlier this month barred transgender people from joining the military and halted gender transition treatment for others who are already in uniform.

The latest memo also states that “applicants for military service… who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified for military service,” as are those with “a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria.”

Shifting US policies

Disqualified applicants can also obtain a waiver if there is a “compelling government interest” in them joining the military and they are “willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with the applicant’s sex.”

Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.

The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.

Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017.

But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.

Trump’s controversial restrictions on transgender military service — which underwent changes in response to various court challenges — eventually came into force in April 2019 following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s top court.

Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so.

After returning to office in January, Trump issued an executive order executive order that again took aim at transgender troops, saying: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”

Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.