USA Today: Trump Pentagon policy will 'purge' transgender service members, advocates say

WASHINGTON – A Democratic House member and advocates for transgender service members say a new Pentagon policy will ban troops from serving in a gender identity other than their sex assigned at birth.

Shannon Minter, one of the lawyers who sued the Pentagon to block a ban on transgender service members, said in a statement the administration was “betraying” people who “faithfully followed the rules” and “put their lives on the line to serve our country.”

“This is a complete purge of all transgender individuals from military service,” Minter said.

The Defense Department issued the policy late Wednesday directing the service branches to identify service members "who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria" by March 26 and “separate” or remove those who don’t obtain waivers by June 25.

The Trump administration policy says there are only two sexes, which the judge in a lawsuit aiming to block the policy said scientists have widely contradicted. The policy states the military "will not allow male Service members to use or share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities designated for females" or vice versa, "absent extraordinary operational necessity." The military also refused to pay for sex reassignment surgery, which was previously covered with a physician's recommendation.

A waiver to remain in the military is possible, but only for a service member who, according to Trump administration policy, “has never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex" and who adheres to "standards associated with the Service member’s sex.”

Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement the policy requiring troops to serve in their sex assigned at birth is “a ban plain and simple.”

“That's what makes someone transgender: living in, or seeking to live in if one could, a sex different from their birth sex,” Cisneros said. “Requiring service in one's birth sex requires a transgender individual to suppress being transgender – echoing the goal of discredited conversion therapy practices."

Transgender service in the military has been a battleground for years.

The Pentagon began accepting transgender troops in June 2016. The change came after a yearlong study and a Rand Corp. report on 18 other countries that allow transgender service found it would have no adverse impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness.

Trump banned transgender service during his first term. Judges in four lawsuits initially blocked his order until the Supreme Court cleared the way for a revised policy in January 2019, which barred transgender people from enlisting, participating in Reserve Officers' Training Corps or attending military academies.

Former President Joe Biden overturned Trump’s order during his first week in office. But Trump reversed Biden’s order and effectively imposed another ban on transgender service members. A group of members and recruits filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to block Trump's mandate.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who is presiding over the case, held two fiery days of hearings last week about whether to block the military policy. But she postponed her decision until after the Pentagon’s policy was released.

Reyes set her next hearing March 12 to consider whether to impose a preliminary injunction to block the policy. Written arguments are due March 4 from the transgender troops suing and March 11 from the government.