Pentagon waiver looks like a Catch-22 to banned transgender troops

Reuters

09-05-2025

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - So far, none of America's transgender troops who want to continue serving in uniform have applied for a waiver to the Pentagon's ban on their service, Reuters was told by each of the military services.
The reason?
Because it's impossible to qualify, transgender troops say.
Reuters was first to report on Thursday a Pentagon memo outlining its plans to start kicking out transgender servicemembers next month, unless they elect to voluntarily leave on their on own beforehand.
For transgender servicemembers carrying out critical missions, from flying combat helicopters to serving on warships overseas, there has been a lot of interest in any legal strategy to continue in uniform.
The Pentagon has said waivers would be granted "provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities."
But the qualifications for a waiver look impossible to comply with, allowing only individuals who meet the following qualifications, laid out in a Pentagon memo from February:
* "The service member has never attempted to transition to another sex."
* "The service member demonstrates 36 consecutive months of stability in their sex."
"As far as I know, no such transgender service member exists," said one transgender service member, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon referred Reuters back to its memo on the qualifications when asked for comment.
Nicolas Talbott, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserve, said it was impossible to apply for a waiver under the Pentagon's list of exemptions since he had fully transitioned.
"It's wild that anybody would think that was something that was actually within the realm of possibility for us to do," Talbott told Reuters.
Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law, an advocacy group, said the list of exemptions essentially meant there was no waiver.
"It doesn't make sense to file a waiver because they can't serve in their birth sex, because they're transgender people," Levi said.
There were no waivers requested from the Air Force or Space Force, while the Army, Navy and Marine Corps said they were also not aware of any service members who had applied for an exemption.
As of late last year, there were 4,240 U.S. active-duty and National Guard transgender troops, officials have said. Transgender rights advocates have given higher estimates.
The Pentagon said on Thursday about 1,000 service members who have self-identified as being diagnosed with gender dysphoria will begin the voluntary separation process.
A poll from Gallup published this in February said 58% of Americans favored allowing openly transgender individuals serving in the military, but the support had declined from 71% in 2019.
The Pentagon's ban is just one of a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to curb transgender rights.
Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office on January 20 stating that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and that they are not changeable.
But Trump's efforts to end transgender rights in the military were a special focus on his election campaign.
In the executive order barring transgender troops, the White House said that a man identifying as a woman was "not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."
A former Fox News host, Hegseth has embraced conservative stances on this and other culture war issues, including eliminating diversity initiatives at the Pentagon.
Speaking on Tuesday, Hegseth told a conference hosted by U.S. special operations forces: "No more pronouns, no more climate-change obsessions, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses."