Pentagon declares transgender soldiers disqualified from service without an exemption

Those identified as transgender by the Pentagon will be immediately dismissed from service and given an honorable discharge, provided they maintained a clean record.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Pentagon filed a memo in court on Wednesday stating that transgender soldiers will be disqualified from military service unless granted an exemption.

The memo was drafted as part of a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ groups challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from the military.

Although Trump enacted a ban on transgender individuals in the military during his first term, his current order goes further, disqualifying transgender soldiers who enlisted prior to the ban.

According to Trump’s order, within 30 days, the Pentagon is required to identify service members with “a current diagnosis of, a history of, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria.”

Those identified as transgender by the Pentagon will be immediately dismissed from service and given an honorable discharge, provided they maintain a clean record.

Individual transgender soldiers may be granted a waiver on a case-by-case basis, “provided there is a compelling government interest in accessing the applicant that directly supports warfighting capabilities.”

They must also demonstrate 36 consecutive months of stability in their sex assigned at birth, without clinical distress or functional impairment, confirm that they have never pursued a medical transition, and agree to adhere to the standards associated with their assigned sex.

The Pentagon memo further states that the military will recognize only two sexes and that sex-separate spaces will be used for sleeping, showers, bathrooms, and changing clothes, with these spaces determined by the sex assigned at birth.

Soldiers are required to use pronouns and titles relevant to the gender assigned at birth.

In January, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) filed a lawsuit on behalf of six active-duty transgender service members and two transgender individuals seeking to enlist, arguing that Trump’s military ban violates their civil rights under the 14th Amendment.