Hegseth implements Trump's ban on transgender recruits, gender-affirming medical care
This directive comes in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's executive order 13 days ago.
About 15,000 transgender individuals are currently serving in the U.S. military, including active duty and reserve forces, according to the independent research institute Palm Center in 2018. This represents about 1% of 1.3 million active-duty personnel.
The memo, obtained by media outlets, including ABC and The Hill, was addressed to senior Pentagon leadership and military command on Friday.
"Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused," the memo said.
"Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect."
He added the Department of Defense would provide "additional policy and implementation guidance" to service members "with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria."
The Defense Department spent about $15 million on surgical and non-surgical care for 1,892 transgender active-duty service members between 2016 and 2021, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Of that amount, $11.5 million was for psychotherapy and $3.1 million on surgeries.
He explained the rationale for the ban: "The Department of Defense's mission requires Service members to abide by strict mental and physical standards," Hegseth wrote in the memo. "The lethality, readiness, and warfighting capability of our Force depends on Service members meeting those standards.
"The Department must ensure it is building 'One Force' without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence Efforts to split our troops along the lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated," he added.
Trump signed the executive order on Jan. 28, rescinding President Joe Biden administration policies that permitted transgender service members to serve openly in the military based on their gender identity. In 2017, Trump banned the service of transgender troops as ordered by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said transgender troops who had begun receiving treatment under the Obama-era policy were grandfathered in.
Trump's new order said that receiving gender-affirming medical care is physically and mentally "incompatible with active duty."
Trump's directive is being challenged in federal court in two lawsuits by LGBTQ+ rights groups on behalf of active-duty transgender service members.
"By categorically excluding transgender people, the 2025 Military Ban and related federal policy and directives violate the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment and the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment," states the lawsuit by the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal on behalf of six transgender military personnel. "They lack any legitimate or rational justification, let alone the compelling and exceedingly persuasive ones required. Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek declaratory, and preliminary and permanent injunctive, relief."
GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a separate lawsuit of six additional active duty service members.
Hegseth's memo "underscores the urgency of the need for court intervention," Shannon Minter, lead counsel of NCLR, told ABC News in a statement Monday.
Trump has been targeting transgender people in other orders, including one declaring the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
On Wednesday, he prohibited transgender female athletes from competing on girls and women's sports teams.
Approximately, 1.6 million people in the United States identify as transgender, which is about 0.6% of the population 13 and older, according to the Williams Institute. Approximately 25% of transgender people report having undergone some form of gender-affirming surgery.
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