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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is setting up a fast timeline for transgender troops to get the boot from the military.
He has directed the department to start moving out transgender members of the military as early as next month.
Transgender active service members can “separate voluntarily” until June 6 and could be eligible for voluntary separation pay. The deadline is July 7 for reserve members.
Hegseth set out his timeline in a two-page memo dated May 8 and referenced President Donald Trump’s executive order to remove transgender troops.
“Service by individuals with a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibiting symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria is not in the best interest of the Military Services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security,” Hegseth said in the memo.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that 1,000 troops who have already self-identified “will begin the voluntary separation process.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the department to start moving out transgender members of the military as early as next month. The Trump administration’s policy has faced legal challenges, but the Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed (Getty Images)
A Biden-era order that allowed transgender members to serve in the military was revoked by Trump when he entered office in January. The aggressive policy was pursued by Hegseth at the Pentagon, but lawsuits followed.
The Supreme Court gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for the Trump administration to enforce the ban while legal challenges against the policy continue.
Hegseth boasted it was a “victory” for Trump in a video message on X Thursday that he captioned: “TRANS is out at the DOD.”
“This is the president’s agenda, this is what the American people voted for, and we’re going to continue to relentlessly pursue it,” Hegseth said.
The Supreme Court ruling is a “devastating blow to transgender service members who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation’s defense,” said a statement from Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which sued to block the policy on behalf of a group of trans service members.”
By “allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the Court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice,” the groups added.
“Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down.”