Published: 21:00 EST, 24 November 2024 | Updated: 10:26 EST, 25 November 2024
President elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order on his ‘first day in office’ to ban transgender members of the military.
The controversial order would cause as many as 15,000 active service members to be ‘medically discharged’ – deeming them unfit to serve, according to The Times.
Trump seeks to issue the executive action on January 20, 2025 or Day 1 of his term, the Times said, preventing any transgender people from enlisting in the military as all branches continue to struggle with recruitment.
The 78-year-old former president has nominated former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense and has pledged to purge all government agencies of ‘woke‘ policies.
In a podcast interview recently, Hegseth called the inclusion of transgender people in the service ‘pushing boundaries.’
He suggested that you can’t integrate trans people in as easily as people of different races were integrated ‘because being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences.”
Hegseth also said that transgender people were ‘not deployable’ because they are ‘reliant on chemicals.’
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt last night downplayed the Times report, stating: ‘No decisions on this issue have been made. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople.’
President elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order on his ‘first day in office’ to ban transgender members of the military
The controversial order would cause 15,000 active service members to be ‘medically discharged’ – deeming them unfit to serve. Pictured: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks with Ian Brown (pictured right), a transgender Army Major who transitioned
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It’s not the first time Trump has attempted to get rid of trans people from the service. In 2017, then-President Trump announced through a series of tweets that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military. Hegseth supported the move.
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EXCLUSIVE Number of transgender troops in US army has doubled since 2020 – and taxpayers have spent $26m on sex change surgeries and treatments for them
The White House said back then that retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of ‘gender dysphoria’ – those who may require substantial medical treatment – ‘presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.’
Trump said on Twitter at the time that the military ‘cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.’
The Obama administration changed longstanding policy, declaring that troops could serve openly as transgender individuals.
Since then, the military has attempted to highlight the stories of transgender soldiers.
Major Jason Vero, a transgender pilot, has won multiple awards and decorations, the Air Force said in 2022.
‘In 2017, I suffered a number of tragedies in a short span of time, I felt lost in the ocean with my head barely above water with waves continuously crashing down,’ said Vero, Joint Base Andrews Air Show director.
‘During that period, I did a lot of internal reflection and after speaking at length with my pastor made the decision to transition.’
2019: Trump stands by banning transgender people from military
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In 2022, the Air Force highlighted the contributions of Major Jason Vero, a transgender pilot who has won multiple awards and decorations
The next year, the Army celebrated Major Rachel Jones, The U.S. Army Sustainment Command Cyber Division chief, who said that being able to live and serve ‘authentically’ saved her life
Major Rachel Jones, US. Army Sustainment Command Cyber Division chief, said that being able to live and serve ‘authentically’ saved her life.
‘I was convinced I was inherently evil for being transgender,’ said Jones. ‘The pressure of hiding all of the time was so bad I grew up depressed and suicidal to the point that I always had a plan to end my life.’
In May, it was revealed the Pentagon has spent more than $26million treating transgender troops since 2020, official records show.
The number of US army staff with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time — from around 1,800 to 3,700, according to DoD data seen by DailyMail.com.
In the past three years, $17.5m in taxpayer money was spent on psychotherapy for trans service people and $1.5m went towards hormone drugs.
A further $7.6m funded gender-affirming surgeries, including facial tweaks to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.
The US Military Health System spends about $50bn annually to provide care to 9.6 million active duty service members, retirees, and their families through its TRICARE health plans.
According to its website, TRICARE does not generally cover surgery for the treatment of gender dysphoria, but active duty service members ‘may request a waiver for medically necessary gender affirming surgery.’
Barack Obama pictured with transgender Staff Sgt Logan Ireland after the then-president lifted the rules on transgender service in 2016
Transgender Captain Jacob Eleazer (pictured left) of the US Army National Guard listens to transgender former US Navy nurse Paula Neira (pictured right)
The total number of transgender individuals in the armed forces is unknown, because it is likely not all of them have sought treatment.
But as of April 2024, 3,700 active military personnel were diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria, according to DHA spokesman Peter Graves.
This includes 1,240 Army soldiers, 1,046 Navy soldiers, 1,024 Air Force airmen and 278 Marine Corps.
They account for 0.3 percent of military personnel, which is lower than the 0.6 percent of trans people in the US population more broadly.
In 2020, 1,892 military personnel had been diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria, including 726 Army soldiers, 576 Navy sailors, 449 Air Force airmen and 141 Marines.
This accounted for 0.1 percent of the 1,333,822 active duty military personnel at the time.
The increase in gender dysphoria diagnoses is not out of balance with the increase of transgender individuals seen in the general population, which has been attributed to growing acceptance in society.
A range of different gender-affirming procedures have been performed on members of the military since 2020, but the most popular was facial reconstruction surgery.
These are designed to make people look more feminine or masculine and include reshaping forehead and brow, jaw and chin contouring and the removal or creation of an Adam’s apple.
The next most popular surgery was a mastectomy, or the removal of breasts, with 192 of these being performed since 2021.
Rarer surgeries include one vaginectomy, which is an operation to remove all or part of the vagina, one clitoroplasty, a procedure to create a clitoris, and one scrotoplasty – the re-arrangement of the labia to create a scrotum.
Three individuals also underwent gender-affirming voice training in 2022, which involves helping transgender people adjust their voices to communication patterns that fit their gender identity, according to Mayo Clinic.
Two unclassified surgeries also took place between 2022 and 2023.
Individuals must be at least 17 years old to join the US military.