Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered an instantaneous pause on gender-affirming medical care procedures for all active-duty service members in a memo that was addressed to senior Pentagon management and army command.
The Feb. 7, 2025, memo, which was obtained in the present day by ABC Information, additionally ordered an instantaneous pause on all new promotions within the army for people “with a historical past of gender dysphoria.”
“Efficient instantly, all new accessions for people with a historical past of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or deliberate medical procedures related to affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” the memo says.
“People with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our nation and might be handled with dignity and respect,” the memo continued, including that the Division of Protection would offer “extra coverage and implementation steerage” to service members “with a present prognosis or historical past of gender dysphoria.”
The memo got here after President Donald Trump signed an govt order on Jan. 28 rescinding Biden administration insurance policies that permitted transgender service members to serve overtly within the army based mostly on their gender identification. The manager order is being challenged in federal court docket by outstanding LGBTQ+ advocacy teams, together with Human Rights Marketing campaign, which filed a pair of lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration on behalf of active-duty transgender service members.
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the press throughout a bilateral assembly with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Protection Minister Richard Marles on the Pentagon, Feb. 7, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Alex Wong/Getty Photos
The manager order directed the Division of Protection to revise the Pentagon’s coverage on transgender service members and said that “expressing a false “gender identification” divergent from a person’s intercourse can’t fulfill the rigorous requirements obligatory for army service.”
The order additional argued that receiving gender-affirming medical care is likely one of the situations that’s bodily and mentally “incompatible with lively responsibility.”
“According to the army mission and longstanding DoD coverage, expressing a false ‘gender identification’ divergent from a person’s intercourse can’t fulfill the rigorous requirements obligatory for army service,” the order continued.
Hegseth echoed this sentiment within the Feb. 7 memo, saying that “efforts to separate our troops alongside traces of identification weaken our Power and make us susceptible. Such efforts should not be tolerated or accommodated.”
Human Rights Marketing campaign and Lambda Authorized filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of six active-duty transgender service members, difficult the Trump administration over the president’s ban on transgender service members.
“By categorically excluding transgender individuals, the 2025 Army Ban and associated federal coverage and directives violate the equal safety and due course of ensures of the Fifth Modification and the free speech assure of the First Modification,” the lawsuit mentioned. “They lack any reputable or rational justification, not to mention the compelling and exceedingly persuasive ones required. Accordingly, Plaintiffs search declaratory, and preliminary and everlasting injunctive, aid.”
An analogous lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration was filed on Jan. 28 within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia by advocacy teams GLAD Regulation and the Nationwide Heart for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) on behalf of six extra lively responsibility service members.
ABC Information reached out to the White Home relating to the lawsuits however requests for remark weren’t returned.
The instant affect of the memo on transgender service members is unclear, however ABC Information has reached out to the plaintiffs in every of these lawsuits for remark.
