1,000 Troops Who Identify as Transgender Being Discharged: Pentagon

The Supreme Court recently said the military could go through with the separations.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Michigan on April 29, 2025. Scott Olson/Getty Images

About 1,000 troops who have been identified as having gender dysphoria are being discharged from the military, the Department of Defense said on May 8.

“Today, the Department will issue guidance to the Military Departments and Services ending the accession of individuals with a current diagnosis or history of, or symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria and all non-medically necessary treatment,” Sean Parnell, a department spokesman, said in a statement.

“Approximately 1,000 Service members who have self-identified as being diagnosed with gender dysphoria will begin the voluntary separation process.”

The force has around 2.1 million troops.

Gender dysphoria is when a person believes they’re a gender that does not match their sex. At least some of the troops with gender dysphoria have begun or finished transgender treatments in an attempt to transition to a gender different from that of their sex, according to court filings.

A majority of Supreme Court justices on May 6 entered a stay of a lower court order in a case brought by a subset of the transgender troops, allowing the military to enforce a memorandum that said troops with gender dysphoria or who have symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria would be discharged unless they were granted an exemption.

President Donald Trump’s first administration banned transgender troops. Under President Joe Biden, the military rescinded the ban.

Trump said in a January order that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”

“This is the president’s agenda, this is what the American people voted for, and we’re going to continue to relentlessly pursue it,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video statement.

In a new memo dated May 8, Hegseth wrote 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.”

The military said that troops with gender dysphoria can choose to voluntarily separate, and that if they do so, they may be eligible for voluntary separation pay.

The deadline to identify themselves for voluntary separation is June 6 for active-duty troops and July 7 for reserves. Both windows were extended, the former for 30 days and the latter for 60 days, from before.

“No more pronouns, no more climate change obsessions, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses,” Hegseth told a conference this week in Florida.

Supreme Court justices in the majority, and the three who said they would not have granted the government’s emergency request for a stay pending appeal, did not offer any rationale for their decision.

The Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which are representing the transgender troops in the court case, said in a statement, “By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the Court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice.”

The Pentagon will let some troops with gender dysphoria continue serving, according to an earlier memo.

Darin S. Selnick, a Department of Defense undersecretary, said troops who want waivers must show there is “a compelling government interest” in retaining them “that directly supports warfighting capabilities.” Those seeking exemptions must also demonstrate they have had “36 consecutive months of stability in the Service member’s sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning,” that they have never attempted a gender transition, and that they are “willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with the Service member’s sex.”