Pete Hegseth has also ordered a halt to accessions for individuals with gender dysphoria.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a halt to transgender procedures for members of the military, according to a memorandum made public on Feb. 10.
Hegseth, in a memo dated Feb. 7, ordered the military to pause “all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members.”
The defense secretary also required a halt to accessions for people with a history of gender dysphoria, or the belief that they are a different gender from their sex at birth.
Both pauses are effective immediately.
Hegseth said in his memo that the Department of Defense “must ensure it is building ‘One Force’ without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence” and that “efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable.” He said that such efforts “must not be tolerated or accommodated.”
The memo implements President Donald Trump’s executive order that restricted openly transgender people from serving in the military. The order said that “the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion” but that the military has recently “been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.”
If a person expresses a gender identity that diverges from his or her sex, then that person cannot satisfy the military’s standards, according to the order, which was signed in January.
The previous military policy allowed transgender people to serve.
A group of service members who say they’re transgender, together with two people who say they’re transgender and wish to accede to the military, quickly filed a suit over the order. They said it violated the U.S. Constitution’s protection of equal rights for all.
“President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military discriminates against Plaintiffs based on their sex and based on their transgender status, without lawful justification,” the plaintiffs said.
