The United States military will no longer accept transgender individuals seeking to enlist and has halted gender affirmation procedures for active service members, Al Jazeera reports, citing a memo filed Monday at the US District Court in Washington, D.C.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in the memo, dated February 7. “All unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused.”
The Trump administration has explained that the restrictions are necessary to ensure “military readiness,” while also condemning what it calls the promotion of “radical gender ideology” within the armed forces.
Advocates estimate that some 15,000 transgender people currently serve in the US military, out of a population of 1.3 million active-duty service members.
Public opinion on transgender service members has seen a recent decline. A Gallup report released Monday found that 58 percent of Americans approve of allowing openly transgender people to serve in the military, a decrease from 71 percent in 2019 and 66 percent in 2021. Gallup attributes the decline primarily to shifts in opinion among Republicans and, to a lesser extent, independents.
During his first term (2017-2021), Trump barred transgender people from military service, a restriction later repealed by former President Joe Biden. Upon returning to office this year, Trump renewed his campaign, signing an executive order on his first day denying the existence of “self-assessed gender identity.”
A subsequent executive order, signed on January 27, directly addressed the military.
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order reads.
On February 3, civil rights organizations, representing six transgender service members and two individuals seeking to enlist, filed for a temporary restraining order against Trump’s decision in the US District Court in Washington, D.C. The complaint includes testimony from Miriam Perelson, a 28-year-old transgender woman serving in the military, who alleges she was told she must be classified as a man or be expelled from the military. Perelson also said she was instructed to leave the women’s sleeping area and sleep on a cot in an empty classroom, and was barred from using women’s restrooms.
The administration’s efforts to restrict transgender rights extend beyond the military. On February 5, Trump signed an order threatening to withhold funding for schools that allow transgender women to participate in women’s sports.
In Utah, the state legislature approved a bill on Monday that bans transgender college students from living in dorms consistent with their gender identity, the first restriction of its kind explicitly targeting transgender individuals in university housing.
