US president Donald Trump is expected to sign four executive orders today that will reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces.
This is the latest in Trump’s series of moves to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
While Trump had already signed an order on his first day in office that revoked the Biden administration’s 2021 directive to allow trans people to serve openly in the military, today’s executive order will go further. It will directly prohibit any service member who identifies as a gender other than their birth sex from serving or enlisting.
“Unit cohesion requires high levels of integrity and stability among service members,” a White House document previewing the order on transgender soldiers reads.
There can be “no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands,” the document says.
“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sworn into the role over the weekend, is directed to make and implement the policy, after Trump signs the order. Hegseth has long stated he planned to implement major cultural changes to the military, including DEI practices and removing “woke” service members.
The ban on transgender military service members is expected to be one of the largest layoffs of transgender people in history and is likely to face legal challenges.
The military is the largest employer in the US, and research shows transgender people appear twice as likely to serve as their cisgender peers.
A Navy veteran and longtime transgender activist, Monica Helms spoke to news publication The 19th, saying that by removing trans people from the military, national security will weaken, and it will expose trans people to mistreatment under the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The government also loses money by firing highly trained personnel, Helms said, noting that transgender people in the military don’t just have desk jobs—they are aircraft carrier personnel and fighter pilots, and others are stationed in the Army and the Marines.
“It’s going to be real dangerous for our country,” said Helms.
Last week, the first woman to lead any US service branch, Commandant of the US Coast Guard Linda Fagan, was fired. Fagan once called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) an “operational imperative”.
Her termination, according to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamin Huffman, is over lagging recruitment and an “erosion of trust” in the service branch. She faced bipartisan frustrations on Capitol Hill after criticism that that the Coast Guard had long mishandled sexual harassment and assault allegations.
However, top Democratic lawmakers pointed out that Trump’s unprecedented decision on day one to fire a service chief ahead of her scheduled departure “sets a bad precedent”.
The Coast Guard commandant is appointed for a four-year term, and Fagan had served two years.