2 days ago
Trans troops leaving military following Trump administration ban
Bree Fram, a colonel in the U.S. Space Force and a transgender woman who was tapped to be the grand marshal at the Annapolis Parade last month before bad weather postponed it, said Monday she will retire after a Trump administration directive led to her being placed her on leave.
Fram is among a wave of trans people voluntarily leaving military service following an ultimatum from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who directed transgender servicemembers to elect by last weekend whether they would go on their own, or face 'involuntary separation.'
In a May memo, the Trump administration had argued that 'service by individuals with a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibiting symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria is not in the best interest of the military services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security.'
Support for transgender troops serving in the military has declined from 71% in 2019 to 58% in 2025, according to a February Gallup poll, but the majority of Americans still believe the military should be open to transgender and gender-nonconforming servicemembers.
Fram, who lives in Virginia, joined the military not long after the attacks of Sept. 11. While she said she is proud of her accomplishments, Fram also said the first 13 years of her career taxed her mentally, as she had to conceal her identity as a trans woman.
That changed in 2016, when then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said transgender people could serve openly. Since then, Fram has been open about being transgender.
'I am proud of being a trans person who has served and who has upheld her oath to the Constitution and done everything this nation has asked of me,' Fram said. 'I know the writing that is on the wall and that my service is no longer required or requested by this nation, so I have applied for retirement.'
As of Monday, Fram was on administrative leave pending retirement approval. She spoke with The Sun about her retirement and the circumstances around it but added that her views do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense.
Nationwide, around 1,000 service members have begun the process of voluntary separation, according to a statement issued by Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell on May 8. Maryland has over 6,500 service members across the National Guard, Air Guard, Defense Force and Military Department, a 2023 study showed. Another 27,863 federal servicemembers were born in Maryland, but only 2.5% of them reside in Maryland.
Some Maryland officials have voiced their disapproval of the policy, which they say is discriminatory and harmful to national security.
In a statement, Gov. Wes Moore, an Army veteran, said: 'We as a nation must respect these patriots by putting a halt to attempts to minimize the military by trying to divide the military.'
On May 30, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who was supposed to walk alongside Fram during Annapolis' Pride Parade, signed onto an amicus curiae brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing against the ban.
Brown called the ban 'discriminatory' and a 'direct attack on our Constitution and the core American values of fairness and equal treatment,' in a statement Friday.
'This policy is not only unjust; it undermines our military readiness and betrays the courage and sacrifice of those who have stepped up to serve. It must be reversed immediately,' Brown said.
The weekend deadline set by Hegseth, which coincided with the first week of Pride Month, follows a Supreme Court decision permitting the reinstatement of orders from the Department of Defense that called for the removal of transgender troops. The department says it does not maintain a state-by-state breakdown of how many transgender soldiers will be affected. Maryland's Military Department, which oversees the Maryland National Guard, declined to comment.
June 6 was the deadline for active duty members to self-identify in order to be eligible for the voluntary separation process, which offers monetary compensation. The deadline for National Guard members is July 7. Remaining transgender and gender-nonconforming soldiers will be removed through an involuntary process, Hegseth's May memo said.
'We are all being forced out,' Fram said. 'I want to make it clear that there is no 'voluntary' or 'involuntary' separation. Neither of those things would be the choice that any of us would be making.'
In a statement Friday, Annpolis Pride, which organizes the parade, said 'our nation is less safe because thousands of brave Americans have been forced to leave the armed forces — not because of any failure in duty, but because of hatred codified at the highest levels of government,' It is unclear if Fram will return for the rescheduled parade in the fall. The U.S Space Force declined to comment.
According to Cathy Marcello, the Interim Executive Director of Modern Military Association of America, which works with LGBTQ+ veterans, nearly three-quarters of transgender service members have served for over 12 years.
'People are losing their homes, their livelihoods, their community, their identity — and their families are being uprooted suddenly with no backup plan or safety net,' Marcello said.
Maryland's VA department is working with the University of Baltimore's Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic to 'connect transgender veterans with legal support services, especially for discharge upgrades or discrimination cases,' Ross Cohen, the acting secretary of the Maryland Department of Veterans & Military Families, said.
Fram said that leaving her career has been a 'grieving process' because she is 'stepping away from something that [she] love[s], something that [she] care[s] about, something that [she] intended to do far into the future.'
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