Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed the U.S. armed forces to reject transgender Americans who want to serve in the military, and is pausing all gender-affirming healthcare for current service members.
A memo shared with senior Pentagon leadership and military commanders on February 7 follows Donald Trump’s executive order paving the way for the nation’s armed services to reject trans service members and deny them access to affirming care.
“The February 7 memorandum from Secretary Hegseth underscores the urgency of the need for court intervention,” National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director Shannon Minter said in a statement to The Independent.
“The administration is already taking steps to implement the ban even before the stated deadlines in the original executive order,” she added. “Transgender applicants are already being turned away and transgender service members are being targeted and denied medically necessary care.”
Trump’s executive order baselessly suggests gender dysphoria “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle” and is a physical and mental impediment to their military service.
“Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” Trump’s order states. “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
At least two lawsuits from trans service members are calling on the courts to overturn Trump’s order.
Hegseth’s memo — shared by lawyers with the office of U.S. attorney general as part of a court order — orders all branches to pause enrollment of transgender recruits and all transition-related healthcare.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” the memo states.
“Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect,” Hegseth adds.
The Defense Department is expected to “provide additional policy and implementation guidance outside of the normal DoD issuance process, including guidance regarding service by Service members with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria, to implement this direction,” according to the memo.
Six active-duty transgender service members, represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, sued administration officials after Trump issued a de facto ban on trans troops in the nation’s military.
Last week, a judge required the administration to provide the court with any changes in policy or guidance that followed Trump’s order. Justice Department lawyers produced five memos — including Hegseth’s memo and guidance from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The lead plaintiff in that case is Army Reserves Second Lieutenant Nicolas Talbott, a 31-year-old trans man who began receiving affirming health care more than 10 years ago.
“Were the prohibition on military service by transgender individuals to be implemented, Lieutenant Talbott would lose the career he has spent years of his life fighting to join, after finally earning his commission, and would be unable to continue to serve the United States people as a member of the military,” according to the complaint.
Another lawsuit filed last week by a different group of seven transgender service members notes that there are “currently thousands of transgender people selflessly and patriotically” across the nation’s military.
“Transgender service members take the same oath as every other service member to serve our Nation and place themselves in harm’s way — potentially paying the ultimate price — in service of our Country,” the lawsuit states. “And to be clear, our country needs ready, able, and willing service members to stand up and protect our freedoms. But the 2025 Military Ban turns them away and kicks them out — for no legitimate reason. Rather, it baselessly declares all transgender people unfit to serve, insults and demeans them, and cruelly describes every one of them as incapable of ‘an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,’ based solely because they are transgender. These assertions are, of course, false.”
The lead plaintiff is Navy Commander Emily Shilling, who has served for 19 years.
“The assertion that transgender service members like myself are inherently untrustworthy or lack honor is an insult to all who have dedicated their lives to defending this country,” Shilling said in a statement. “This ban is not about readiness or cohesion, and it is certainly not about merit. It is about exclusion and betrayal, purposely targeting those of us who volunteered to serve, simply for having the courage and integrity to live our truth.”
Trump has issued several executive actions marginalizing transgender Americans, including a Day One order that effectively seeks to deny transgender, nonbinary and intersex people from recognition across the federal government.
A judge temporarily blocked the relocation of several incarcerated transgender women who sued the administration to block their imminent transfer to men’s facilities.
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Defense.
