Pentagon sets 30-day deadline to remove transgender troops from US military

In accordance with executive order 14183, titled 'Prioritising Military Excellence and Readiness', issued by President Donald Trump on 27 January 2025, the Pentagon has directed the 'separation' of service members and recruits diagnosed with gender dysphoria from the US military.

This executive order asserts that identifying as a gender different from one's biological sex conflicts with military standards of 'readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity', the White House said.

Following this directive, the department of defense has mandated that each military branch identify service members with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria within 30 days and initiate separation proceedings within the subsequent 30 days.

However, exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis — for individuals who directly support warfighting capabilities or have demonstrated stability in their biological sex for 36 consecutive months without significant distress or impairment, the AP reported.

A memo sent to defense department leaders on Thursday, 27 February, directs the military to establish procedures by 26 March to identify service members diagnosed with or receiving treatment for gender dysphoria. Once identified, the military will have 30 days to begin their removal from service.

The order builds on an executive directive signed by President Trump early in his tenure, outlining steps to ban transgender people from military service. The policy has faced legal challenges.

Preliminary estimates suggest that hundreds of transgender service members can be identified through medical records, according to US officials — a small fraction of the 2.1 million active troops.

However, the issue has become a major focus for the Pentagon, as president Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth push to remove them, arguing that their medical condition does not meet military standards.

‘The medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service,’ Darin Selnick, who is serving as defence undersecretary for personnel, said in the new memo.

It claims that the lethality and integrity of the military ‘is inconsistent’ with what transgender personnel go through as they transition to the gender they identify with, and it issues an edict that gender is ‘immutable, unchanging during a person's life’.

Lawyers representing six transgender service members challenging Trump's executive order have argued in court filings that the directive shows “hostility” toward transgender people, treating them as “unequal and dispensable” and undermining their dignity in the eyes of fellow service members and the public.

Sarah Warbelow, vice president for legal affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, said the policy places service members in a difficult position, pressuring transgender troops to self-identify.

“All of a sudden, you are going to be required to out yourself. Other people are going to be required to out you,” Warbelow said.

“If you've got a best friend in the military who happens to know that you are transgender, under this new guidance they're required — if you are a woman who is transgender — they're required to start referring to you as ‘he’ and ‘sir’, as of today.”

Troops are put in the position of having to choose “between the safety of their friends and violating direct orders”, Warbelow said, adding that transgender service members may feel pressure to self-identify, knowing that they may be penalised for not coming forward.

US officials on Thursday estimated that around 600 transgender personnel in the Navy and between 300 and 500 in the Army could be identified through medical records.

With IANS inputs