Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military.
In a shockingly savage order Trump claimed that “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology,” and baselessly claimed that trans people are both medically and morally unfit to serve.
It is estimated that there are around 15,000 transgender persons in the military. A 2016 study found that there were nearly 10,000. There are close to two million people serving in the US military across all branches.
The new order reinstates military servicemembers who were discharged for their refusal to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. The orders were signed as Trump returned to Washington DC from Florida where he was golfing, one week after taking the oath of office.
“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,” his order reads. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The order noted: “Many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty, from conditions that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization.”
LGBT+ advocacy groups Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign said in a statement toThe Independent they plan to sue over the order.
“We have been here before and seven years ago were able to successfully block the earlier administration’s effort to prevent patriotic, talented Americans from serving their country,” Lambda Legal Counsel Sasha Buchert said. “Not only is such a move cruel, it compromises the safety and security of our country and is particularly dangerous and wrong. As we promised then, so do we now: we will sue.”
The new order could potentially impact tens of thousands of US servicemembers with another caveat targeting those with mental health issues.
“[Diagnoses] that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization,” will also be a new condition of service.
In 2021, former President Joe Biden’s administration took measures that allowed transgender troops to serve, which curtailed an earlier Trump ban banning such service.
Transgender military members are not immediately banned from serving but rather the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security are both required to to issue reports on how the various branches will interpret and adopt the new policy.
Trump’s acoloyte leading the the Defense Department, the newly confirmed Pete Hegseth has long been an advocate against transgender people serving in the military.
During a November interview, he said that anybody who was on medication aiding a transition would be unable to serve. The former Fox News host, who oversees the Pentagon’s $820 billion budget, has also said that he will strive to remove “woke” service members. As he began his first day of work, amid allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault, adultery and domestic abuse, Hegseth promised reporters that “more executive orders” were forthcoming.
