When Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed by Congress in December of 2011 and the Department of Defense (DoD) allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve openly the following year, transgender service members (SMs) were left behind and forced to remain serving in silence. Donald Trump, like he did in his first term, is again trying to prohibit transgender people from serving their country—including the 4,500 already in uniform.

History of Trans Military Bans 

After a year of study by the RAND Corp (and others) Defense Secretary Ashton Carter affirmed on June 30, 2016 that, to maintain military advantages, DoD was required to avail themselves of the best and brightest talent available. He eliminated the existing ban on transgender service and put in place policies allowing trans SMs to serve openly and receive all medically necessary care. President Trump’s July 2017 tweets banned transgender civilians from serving but allowed those in uniform to remain. Secretary Mattis implemented his guidance shortly thereafter. Implementation of ban 2.0 was halted by four court cases. In early 2019, the Supreme Court allowed trans ban 2.0 to remain in place citing trans folks could still serve in their sex/gender assigned at birth. President Joe Biden’s Executive Order in January 2021 rescinded the previous orders and allowed trans SMs, once again, to serve openly.

Policies that ban thousands of qualified and experienced trans SMs are dangerous not only for those involved, but for our national defense and individual safety. They create vulnerabilities and opportunities for our adversaries to exploit. At a local level, they incite violence to cisgender and transgenders folks, alike.

On January 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” where he somehow claimed, “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” Prior to any policy change, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s memo dated February 7 indicated, “The lethality, readiness, and warfighting capability of our Force depends on Service members meeting those standards.” It should be noted here that trans SMs have met, or exceeded, all standards since 2016. The February 7 memo clearly states, “Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect.” The same memo denies qualified civilians an opportunity to join, denies those serving medically necessary care, and takes away promotions of enlisted personnel who successfully complete Officer Candidate School and other commissioning options (e.g., service academy, ROTC graduates). Perhaps the new Secretary has a new definition of dignity and respect, but I digress.

On February 26, Secretary Hegseth disseminated the new policy declaring the “high standards for Service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity…is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria…and are no longer eligible for military service….” All medical procedures are cancelled; cross-hormone therapy can be continued until separation is complete. Each service (e.g. Army, Navy, etc) now has 30 days to publish separation guidance. Those with 18+ years of service will be allowed to retire (Marines 15+ years), SMs with 6–17 years may qualify for voluntary separation pay if filed within 30 days; those who stay longer than 30 days may qualify for involuntary separation pay (50% of VSP). All individuals being processed for separation are now non-deployable.

Since trans SMs have met or exceeded the standards for almost nine years, readiness standards have been maintained, and healthcare costs have declined to $2.4M per year for trans SMs, the Administration is searching for new reasons to kick out trans SMs. If we want to talk about gender-affirming care costs, we should mention DoD spends $100M+ annually for Erectile Dysfunction drugs.

Sorting Fact from Fiction 

The facts remain that trans SMs are fully qualified for their positions, meet or exceed all standards, and are deployed worldwide in the most austere conditions, on land, in the air, on and under the sea. The DoD’s own data (September 2019) indicate 86% of trans SMs are Senior enlisted and Senior Officers; most recent data indicate 73% are Senior enlisted. The average trans SM has 12–21 years of service and multiple deployments. That’s an awful lot of experience and leadership skills we stand to lose from the roles.

SPARTApride.org, an org for trans military and veterans, reports numerous military commanders are out in front of any policy change and directing trans members to use bathroom and sleeping facilities that align with their sex assigned at birth, even though Judge Advocates (military lawyers) agree the members should continue to use facilities based on the gender in the military data base (Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System or DEERS).

Trans SMs and allies have filed two lawsuits seeking preliminary injunctions to any new policy prohibiting service by trans individuals. The initial arguments in the first lawsuit were heard by Judge Ana Reyes in DC District Court on February 17 and 18. It seems the Judge’s interpretation to date is that “the premise of the Executive Order (everyone has only either XX or XY chromosomes) is just incorrect.” Additionally, she surmised our military is incompetent if the greatest fighting force in history is going to have readiness degraded by “less than one percent of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them.” While she indicated the EO appears to be unfounded animus, this was only the first battle of the first days. At the time of this writing, the next court date was expected to to happen mid-March, shortly after the revised policy was expected to be published. After additional arguments, she was expected to issue her ruling on a preliminary injunction by Mar 10. This will, again, end up before the Supreme Court.

Part of a Larger Anti-trans Movement 

The trans military ban is part of a larger movement, one which fails to recognize the science involved. The benefits of gender-related care are widely recognized and supported by almost all the major, legitimate healthcare organizations around the globe. As one who has testified on Capitol Hill and at the Wisconsin State Capitol, I am appalled at the disinformation being peddled by Republicans at committee hearings. Some people claim their research is factual, when they haven’t conducted research at all. How they arrive at their conclusions is by conducting selective literature reviews of pieces that agree with their preconceived opinions. An actual research process involves identifying gaps in that literature, hypothesizing a solution to that gap, developing a plan to test the hypothesis, vetting it through an institutional review board process, conducting data collection, analysis, and then submitting results to independent peer reviewers for validation. See the difference?

Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of political theater that has been harmful to the trans community—almost all along political party lines. During the past several years, we’ve seen 26 red states ban medically necessary care for trans youth, (two states banned trans healthcare for adults). In the first two months of 2025, eight additional states introduced bills banning adult trans health care. The new administration has erased trans/NB/GNC folks from government passports and websites and restricted bathroom use to sex assigned at birth. That started in early January when Speaker Johnson restricted where Sarah McBride (D-DE) could use the bathroom. A subsequent EO and OPM guidance restricts all people to bathrooms based on sex assigned at birth. This applies to all federal agencies and buildings, all federal employees, and visitors. I’ve been in federal buildings several times since and will not be complying. It would not only be confusing, but dangerous for me. This puts cisgender individuals in danger, as well. When Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) thought she saw Rep McBride in the ladies room, she ran to Rep Nancy Mace (R-SC). Upon entering, Rep Boebert was informed she made an error, and issued a formal apology. And, of course, no one has addressed how these rules/laws will be enforced. Sadly, this is all based on the opinion of one person determined to use fear and disinformation to erase trans people from society.

Forcing humans into an outdated gender binary and one different from their identity is cruel and inhuman and will, undoubtedly, lead to tragic consequences. Forcing trans people into bathrooms by their sex assigned at birth, when their identity differs, is no different than forcing cisgender individuals to do the same. From experience, I know it will create critical mental health crises.

Secretary Hegseth’s directive to restrict trans SMs to bathrooms based on their sex assigned at birth will result in harm to many by forcing all genders to use the same bathroom. I thought that was what the GOP/Christian right was trying to avoid? If trans SMs are forced to wear the uniform of their sex assigned at birth, he will be responsible for the catastrophic results. In fact, this has already started with the suicide of a trans military retiree at the Syracuse VA Hospital in February.

Trans healthcare has been around for more than 100 years. The Magnus Hirschfeld Clinic opened in Berlin in 1919. It treated all members of the LGBTQ community and specialized in trans healthcare. In 1933, Nazis raided it. They piled 20,000+ library research references onto the street and ignited them—and murdered half of the staff. “First they came for the trans kids….” I am not an alarmist. In fact, my military leader and analytical skill sets make me the exact opposite. Having said that, the similarities to what is happening to the transgender population in the U.S. today is deeply troubling.

Sheri Swokowski is a retired Army Col and PhD researcher who has been an advocate for trans military service for more than a decade. She played a role in influencing the Department of Defense in 2014–15 to allow transgender personnel to serve openly and receive medically necessary care. She is the first female infantry soldier to be recognized by DoD when they corrected her DD 214 (record of military service) to reflect her authenticity. While prohibited from serving authentically in uniform, she did so as a civilian senior analyst at the Pentagon 2008–10.