Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instituted a ban on allowing transgender people to join the military late last week, following a directive from President Donald Trump.
A memo dated Feb. 7 and signed by the defense secretary says, "Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused."
"All scheduled, unscheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused."
The memo also says service members with gender dysphoria "have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect."
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But the memo was unclear about what would happen to those currently in the military and identifying as a gender different than that assigned at birth, delegating responsibility to the under secretary for personnel and readiness to provide policy and implementation guidance for active service members with gender dysphoria.
The Pentagon could not immediately be reached for comment on the status of current transgender service members.
During a military town hall on Friday, Hegseth tore into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
"I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is, 'Our diversity is our strength.' I think our strength is our unity," he said.
Hegseth went on: "Our strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race. In this department, we will treat everyone equally, we will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission."
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Late last month, the Pentagon declared identity months, including Black History Month and Women's History Month, "dead" within DoD and said it would not use resources to celebrate them.
An executive order signed by Trump last month required Hegseth to update medical standards to ensure they "prioritize readiness and lethality" and take action to "end the use of invented and identification-based pronouns" within DOD.
It says that expressing a "gender identity" different from an individual's sex at birth does not meet military standards.
The order also restricts sleeping, changing and bathing facilities by biological sex. It's not an immediate ban, but a direction for the secretary to implement such policies.
It revokes former President Joe Biden's executive order that the White House argues "allowed for special circumstances to accommodate 'gender identity' in the military - to the detriment of military readiness and unit cohesion."
A categorical ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2014 under President Barack Obama.
There are an estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender service members - exact figures are not publicly available.
Between Jan. 1, 2016, and May 14, 2021, the DOD reportedly spent approximately $15 million on providing transgender treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) to 1,892 active duty service members, according to the Congressional Research Service.
