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.
According to the Times, Trump plans to sign the executive order on January 20, 2025, or Day 1 of his administration, prohibiting transgender individuals from joining the military as all services continue to face recruiting challenges.
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 representatives have been contacted by DailyMail.com for comment.
Trump has already tried to remove transgender individuals from the military. Then-President Trump said in a series of tweets in 2017 that he would prohibit transgender individuals from joining the military. Hegseth was in favour of the action.
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 announced that troops might serve openly as transgender people, changing a long-standing norm.
The military has since made an effort to draw attention to the experiences of transgender soldiers.
Transgender pilot Major Jason Vero has received several honours and medals, 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.’
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.’
According to official statistics, the Pentagon has spent over $26 million treating transgender personnel since 2020, as was disclosed in May.
I have nothing against those psychologically in need of whatever alternate life they desire. Still, the military is not the place for it, and military fundings are not meant to finance transition therapy.
People are joining the military to get the surgeries and spending their entire time in the service getting the surgeries and recuperating while being non-deployable the whole time. It’s not fair to other troops.
In the meantime, there are an alarming number of homeless veterans, and those who serve in conflict zones receive the poorest treatment and assistance.
Deployment is the problem here. Since transgender individuals must take hormones for the remainder of their lives, how can they be used in a combat situation in a possible war zone?
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