The Pentagon has directed that service members and recruits with gender dysphoria be separated from the US military. A memo sent to Defence Department leaders on Thursday directs the military to establish procedures by March 26 to identify service members. Once identified, the military will have 30 days to begin their removal from service. The order builds on an executive directive signed by President Trump early in his tenure, outlining steps to ban transgender people from military service. It claims that the lethality and integrity of the military “is inconsistent” with what transgender personnel go through as they transition to the gender they identify with, and it issues an edict that gender is “immutable, unchanging during a person’s life’ The policy has faced legal challenges and lawyers representing six transgender service members challenging Trump’s executive order have argued in court filings that the directive shows “hostility” toward transgender people, treating them as “unequal and dispensable” and undermining their dignity in the eyes of fellowService members and the public.
