WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon has introduced a new policy that will significantly reduce the capabilities of transgender soldiers. banned from the military The Trump administration directed the military to look to its fellow board members to assert their right to remain, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
If the Military Separation Board decides to allow transgender service members to continue wearing military uniform, commanders can override that decision. October 8th memo We would like to thank Anthony Tata, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, for all his services. it will break Long-standing policy that the board of directors acts independently.
it is Department of Defense’s latest step It follows President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at removing transgender soldiers from the military. He and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts What they say is an effort to make the military more lethal.
Administration policy faces backlash in court as transgender soldiers and their allies say they have proven their worth He appealed to the military, but in May the U.S. Supreme Court authorized enforcement of the ban; While legal challenges proceed.
The new memo, which advocates say was released to the military just last week, also creates an additional hurdle by requiring transgender service members to appear before a segregation board wearing a uniform that matches their assigned gender at birth, and if they don’t comply, they could be penalized for being absent.
Uniform requirement could keep transgender troops out of hearings
Emily Starbuck Gerson, a spokeswoman for SPARTA Pride, an advocacy group for transgender soldiers and veterans, said the policy, especially the uniform requirement, would prevent many people from attending segregation committee hearings.
“They’ve already essentially set up a predetermined outcome, and now they’re going to impose even more penalties on people who don’t show up because they can’t wear the wrong uniform,” Gerson added.
When asked about the memo, Pentagon Assistant Press Secretary Riley Podolsky said, “As a matter of policy, the Department of Defense does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
The policy is as follows Air Force command reported by Associated Press In August, the Segregation Board said it cannot independently decide whether to keep or remove transgender troops, but instead “must recommend the separation of members” if they receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, meaning their biological sex does not match their gender identity.
Gerson said the new policy, which applies to all services, is “very similar to what the Air Force has rolled out,” but noted that some of the additional hurdles, like uniform requirements, are “alarming.”
The October memo states, “If the service member fails to comply with uniform and personal appearance standards, the board’s proceedings will continue in the service member’s absence and, if appropriate, may take the service member’s failure to comply with the standards into account in determining whether grounds for separation have been established.”
“It’s a betrayal of what the military has seen of me.”
Many transgender soldiers have served for many years and are unlikely to own the military uniform of the gender they were assigned at birth. And they say it’s wrong to force them to wear that uniform.
Sergeant Major Logan Ireland, who served in the Air Force for 15 years, said he has been viewed as a man for most of his adult life and during his approximately 13 years of military service.
“It would be a betrayal of what the military has seen of me,” he said, adding, “It would be a costume-like effect.”
The Irish military, like almost every other transgender soldier, is on leave and has grown a long beard.
“Is it okay to wear a skirt or wear a cross-dressing uniform? Of course it is. … But does that reflect who I am and how I look on a daily basis? No, it just causes a lot of confusion,” he said.
Advocate Gerson said the new policy seemed to run counter to the merit-based military ideals that Hegseth had touted.
“That doesn’t take into account the service member’s background, accomplishments, training and need for the field,” she said.
Ireland also said the policy “forces us to leave a service that once valued our contributions and denies us the dignity and respect we were promised.”
What does the Military Separation Committee do?
The commission traditionally provides soldiers facing separation from the military with a quasi-legal hearing to determine whether they are still of value to the military and should remain. Fellow service members will hear what wrongdoing occurred and evidence about the person’s character, fitness, and performance.
Although it is not a formal court hearing, it has a similar structure. Service members are often represented by lawyers and can submit evidence in their defense and appeal the commission’s findings in federal court.
Department of Defense Policy on Segregation of Personnel They are entitled to a “fair and impartial” hearing, which should be “a forum for relevant officials to present reasons why the proposed action should not be taken,” it said.
This impartiality means that the board can sometimes reach surprising conclusions. For example, the commander of the destroyer USS McCain, which collided with an oil tanker in the Pacific Ocean in 2017 and killed 10 people, was not advised to separate in 2019.
Most recently, three active-duty Marines who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were also detained.
Priya Rashid, a military lawyer who has represented service members in hundreds of separation committees, said the fact that commanders can ignore this process for trans troops is a perversion of justice.
“Service members accused of gross misconduct, violent misconduct, and gender-based misconduct are afforded more due process protections and more rights and entitlements than this group of people based solely on the administrative label of gender dysphoria,” she said.
