The requirements of Army service are just too rigorous for most transgender members, who often require ongoing medical and mental health treatment for their gender dysphoria. U.S. Army said Friday it is banning transgender people from joining the force, and those who joined to get the government to pay for their sex-change operations will not have that service provided to them at taxpayer expense.
“The #USArmy will no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members,” the Army said in a statement.
Transgenders are individuals who do not live as their biological sex, but who live either as the opposite sex or some other version of sexuality. It’s a different condition than transvestitism, in which men dress up as women as part of sexual arousal. Some versions of transgenderism are a form of autogynephilia, where men are sexually aroused by presenting as females.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” the Army continued.
“Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect,” the statement said.
Most transgenders seek costly sexual hormone treatments and many get their sexual organs surgically removed or mangled. Women who want to be men may have tissue surgically removed from parts of their body to form what serves as a penis, and have their breasts chopped off. These surgeries are referred to by the LGBTQ community as “bottom surgery” and “top surgery.” Men who want to look like women sometimes have their penises chopped off and have a surgically designed pseudo-vagina, which they refer to as “front holes.”
The decision to be transgender requires lifetime medication and comes with serious medical complications, making many transgenders unsuitable for deployment, since their futures may be medically fragile.
The Army said it is bringing the force into compliance with presidential orders as well as orders from the Secretary of Defense. So far, the Army is the only branch to make the policy change public. The other branches are expected to follow the Army’s lead.
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to set a policy for transgender service members within 30 days. The order said “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.” The order says that transgenders “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
In 2015, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered a review of the U.S. military’s ban on transgender people serving openly. On June 30, 2016, the ban was repealed.
During Trump’s first term, he reinstated the ban on transgenders serving openly in the military. That order was rescinded by President Joe Biden immediately upon taking office in January, 2021.
The transgenders who are currently serving in the Army are not covered by this order, which applies only to new prospective members.
