The United States military will start removing transgender service members within 30 days unless they qualify for a waiver. This decision was outlined in a Pentagon memo released on Wednesday, which became public through a court filing related to a legal challenge against President Donald Trump’s latest executive order.
The order, signed in late January, aims to prohibit transgender individuals from serving in the military. The memo states: “Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service.”
However, there is an exception. Transgender troops may apply for a waiver on a case-by-case basis if their continued service is deemed essential to military operations.
To qualify, service members must prove they have never attempted to transition and must demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”
This policy marks yet another shift in the ongoing debate over transgender military service. In 2016, during President Barack Obama’s administration, the ban on transgender troops was lifted, allowing them to serve openly.
However, after taking office in 2017, Trump delayed the implementation of new recruitment policies and later moved to reverse the decision entirely. His restrictions, after facing multiple legal challenges, officially took effect in April 2019.
When President Joe Biden assumed office in 2021, he quickly moved to undo Trump’s restrictions, declaring that all qualified Americans should be allowed to serve in the military regardless of gender identity.
However, with Trump’s return to office in January 2025, his administration has once again taken steps to exclude transgender individuals from military service.
In the executive order, Trump stated: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
