Pentagon Halts Gender-Affirming Care to Active Duty Troops
Following a Supreme Court win for the Trump administration, the Pentagon is officially ending GAC for trans troops effective immediately, and giving them less than a month to separate voluntarily.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
The Pentagon has officially halted gender-affirming care for active duty military personnel in accordance with an executive order from President Trump that demands the firing of any member of the United States military who has received a diagnosis of, or treatment for, gender dysphoria, according to Reuters.
The memo seen by Reuters is alleged to have “barred any new hormone treatments as well as any surgical procedures for transgender troops,” even though TRICARE, the healthcare provider for active duty military personnel in America, has long refused to cover gender-affirming surgeries in most cases.
Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, is alleged to have instructed in the memo that the recipients “immediately implement this guidance.” When asked for comment, the Pentagon directed Reuters to speak with the Defense Health Agency, who facilitate healthcare services for the armed forces. The DHA had not responded to Reuters’ request for comment before publication.
This news comes on the heels of another memo Reuters obtained last week in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded that the Pentagon start forcibly separating active duty transgender troops who had not left on their own by June 6. Troops in the armed forces reserves had until July 7th to voluntarily separate. On this memo, too, the Pentagon provided no comment. Hegseth simply tweeted, “No More Trans @ DoD.”
According to Reuters, officials have estimated that there are 4,240 transgender troops in the US military. This figure is somewhat contentious: activists defending trans rights often estimate higher, and in 2018 the now defunct Palm Center UCSB think tank estimated that there were 14,707 transgender Americans serving in the armed forces; 8,980 active duty, and another 5,727 in the reserves. There are approximately 2.86 million military personnel in the United States, meaning even the highest estimates of transgender troops account for less than half of one percent of all troops. How such a small minority could possibly compromise military readiness, as the Trump administration insists they do, is unclear.
The battle over transgender troops has been waged in federal courts since Trump’s executive order was issued in January, with two separate federal judges issuing sweeping pauses on the separation of transgender troops from the military. Unfortunately, last week the Supreme Court rubber stamped a request from the Trump administration to let them carry on firing transgender military personnel and denying them healthcare, and determine the constitutionality of that maneuver at a later date. The issued approval was one page, provided no explanation of the conservative justices’ rationale, and noted that the progressive judges dissented.
This is just the latest move in Trump’s war on inclusivity in the military. Over the weekend, leaders at the Pentagon were instructed to identify and remove materials that promote “divisive concepts and gender ideology.”
It’s unclear exactly how these separations will be processed, and whether or not transgender troops who are separated from the military, involuntarily or otherwise, will retain access to benefits such as the GI Bill or VA healthcare. In particular, new guidance on trans healthcare at the VA last month declared that no new patients for gender dysphoria treatment would be accepted, but that active duty troops accessing gender affirming-care through TRICARE who then separated from the military and qualified for care through the VA would be eligible to transition their treatment plan to the VA. The Pentagon has provided no answers on whether or not these rules are still in place, so eager are they to purge transgender Americans from military service.
Whatever you think about our armed forces, I find it deeply upsetting that thousands of trans people will be unemployed, homeless and possibly without healthcare in the next 30 to 60 days. Discrimination against trans people in housing and employment is on the rise, after all. Besides that, I simply cannot stomach the notion of transgender Americans being systematically excluded from any group that cisgender Americans have free access to; this is, it should go without saying, one of the first steps down a very scary road.
We’ve lost this battle. I hope we can win the war.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.