WASHINGTON: The US military will “immediately” start the process of removing some 1,000 transgender troops and will force out those who do not leave voluntarily by early June, the Pentagon said.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January banning transgender military service, and the US Supreme Court ruled this week that the ban could take effect while litigation challenging it plays out.
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“The Military Departments will immediately begin processing for separation service members who previously self-identified for voluntary separation prior to March 26, 2025,” a memo from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said.
Approximately 1,000 troops who identified as having gender dysphoria diagnoses fall into that category, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
There were a total of 4,240 currently serving troops with such diagnoses as of late last year, according to a senior defense official, and the memo said those who do not voluntarily leave by June 6 for active-duty troops and the following day for reserves will be removed.
“On conclusion of the self-identification eligibility window, the Military Departments will initiate involuntary separation processes,” the memo said.
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In his January 27 executive order, Trump stated that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent transgender people from joining.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.
And, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow it to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Solicitor General John Sauer asked for the lifting of a lower court order barring the administration from ending humanitarian protections for migrants from the four nations.
In March, the administration moved to revoke the legal status of some 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the United States under a “parole” program launched by former president Joe Biden.
The parole program allowed entry into the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries, which have grim human rights records.
District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, blocked the administration last month from revoking the legal status of the migrants.
Under Trump’s revocation, the immigrants would have lost their legal protection effective April 24, just 30 days after the Department of Homeland Security published its order in the Federal Register.
Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
Among other measures, he invoked an obscure wartime law to fly hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
