Transgender troops have between 30 and 60 days to self-separate from the military after a court order allowed the ban on their service to move forward, according to a Thursday memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“After a SCOTUS victory for @POTUS, TRANS is out at the DOD,” Hegseth wrote on X, along with a video announcing the new deadline.
Approximately 1,000 service members have self–identified as having gender dysphoria and will begin the voluntary separation process, according to the Pentagon.
Active duty service members have until June 6, one month after the court’s ruling, to leave the military. Reservists have until July 7.
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“The Secretary is encouraged by the Supreme Court’s order staying the lower court’s injunction, allowing the Department of Defense to carry out its policies associated with ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,’” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement celebrating the ruling and announcing the new timeline.
“In accordance with policy now reinstated, service members who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria may elect to separate voluntarily,” Hegseth said, adding that if they chose not to do so by the deadline, they would be removed “involuntarily, if necessary.”
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The high court ruling was a victory for the White House, even as the justices did not address the underlying merits of the case or President Donald Trump‘s Jan. 27 executive order banning transgender service members from the U.S. military.
A lower court had issued an injunction on the policy. The Trump administration argued that delaying the policy could pose a threat to U.S. military readiness.
Trump officials have argued that the transgender military policy “furthers the government’s important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs.”
An executive order signed by Trump in January ordered Hegseth to update medical standards to ensure they “prioritize readiness and lethality” and take action to “end the use of invented and identification-based pronouns” within the DOD.
It says that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth does not meet military standards.
A categorical ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama.
Between Jan. 1, 2016, and May 14, 2021, the DOD reportedly spent approximately $15 million on providing transgender treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) to 1,892 active-duty service members, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The transgender ban is part of a broader push by the new Pentagon leadership to root out any policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Last month, Hegseth announced that “99.9%” of DEI-related policies had been eliminated at the Defense Department, as he raised standards for fitness tests and moved to ensure the combat fitness test held men and women to the same standards.
Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
