US military to ban transgender people: President's executive order

President Donald Trump signed four executive orders pertaining to the military Monday, including one barring transgender people from enlisting and serving openly and another cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the armed services.

The order pertaining to transgender military service, titled "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness," reinstates a policy from Trump's first term and rescinds an order by then-President Joe Biden that allowed trans people to enlist and permitted already enlisted trans service members to receive coverage for transition-related medical care.

"It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity," the order states. "This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex."

The order mandates that the Defense Department update its military medical standards within 60 days, promptly "end invented and identification-based pronoun usage" and prohibit people assigned male at birth from using women’s sleeping, changing and bathing facilities.

The order will take time to implement, so transgender service members will not be immediately ejected. It’s unclear what will happen to service members who are receiving transition-related care through Tricare, the military’s health care program. Biden signed a defense bill in December that barred coverage of gender-affirming care for trans children of service members, so that care was already prohibited.

President Donald Trump signed four executive orders pertaining to the military Monday, including one barring transgender people from enlisting and serving openly and another cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the armed services.

The order pertaining to transgender military service, titled "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness," reinstates a policy from Trump's first term and rescinds an order by then-President Joe Biden that allowed trans people to enlist and permitted already enlisted trans service members to receive coverage for transition-related medical care.

"It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity," the order states. "This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex."

The order mandates that the Defense Department update its military medical standards within 60 days, promptly "end invented and identification-based pronoun usage" and prohibit people assigned male at birth from using women’s sleeping, changing and bathing facilities.

The order will take time to implement, so transgender service members will not be immediately ejected. It’s unclear what will happen to service members who are receiving transition-related care through Tricare, the military’s health care program. Biden signed a defense bill in December that barred coverage of gender-affirming care for trans children of service members, so that care was already prohibited.