Pursuing President Trump's vision of a fighting force focused on readiness to wage war, the Pentagon is about to initiate a fast-paced program to ferret out transgender military members and discharge them from the military, according to a memorandum filed in federal court on Wednesday.
“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” the memo says. The campaign will be carried out in two phases. First, the Pentagon will have 30 days to create a process for identifying and cataloguing every transgender service member. Discharges must commence within the next 30 days. Discharges will be "honorable" unless the individual's record makes a lesser classification appropriate.
“The Department only recognizes two sexes: male and female,” the memo adds. “An individual’s sex is immutable, unchanging during a person’s life. All service members will only serve in accordance with their sex.” Out of some 1.3 million active duty service members, trans advocates say there upwards of 15,000 who think they're transgender, but officials counter that the actual tally is in the low thousands, Reuters reports.
The memo indicates that exceptions may be made if there is a “compelling government interest … that directly supports warfighting capabilities" and --this is a big one -- the individual is willing to comply with standards “associated with the applicant’s sex.” Taken with other elements of the Pentagon's pronouncements, that latter criterion seems to indicate that the individual would essentially have to renounce their transgender identity and behaviors -- perhaps even when they're off-duty. Combined with the "compelling government interest" qualifier, it seems few if any exceptions will be made.
News of the pending mass-discharge program follows an earlier Pentagon announcement that it would stop accepting transgender people as new recruits, and would no longer perform or facilitate gender transition procedures.
The memorandum was filed as part of the adjudication of a legal challenge to Trump's Jan. 26 executive order aimed at "prioritizing military excellence and readiness." The order declared gender dysphoria to be wholly incompatible with military service. Its pointed language was applauded by conservatives, while enraging cultural Marxists:
Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.
Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.
That blunt language is also factoring into the legal challenge filed by several trans service members, with US District Judge Ana Reyes saying the order is "arguably rampant with animus." Reyes is holding judgement until she can examine the Pentagon's detailed implementation plan. The next hearing is scheduled for late March.
There's more to the Pentagon's war on woke ideology. On Jan. 31, the Defense Department issued a memo titled "Identity Months Dead at DoD."
"Going forward, DoD Components and Military Departments will not use official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events related to cultural awareness months, including National African American/Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month. Service members and civilians remain permitted to attend these events in an unofficial capacity outside of duty hours."
The ghosts of D-Day's dead are smiling approvingly.
