Military transgender people must leave their respective branches until June 6th if they wish to qualify for a voluntary separation salary.
Transgender individuals in the reserve must do the same until July 7th.
The memo comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender service members, despite the policy itself being challenged by the court.
The High Court did not control the merits of the policy, such as whether it was constitutional or not, or whether it was motivated by anti-transgender animus.
“According to the currently recovered policy, service members who have a current diagnosis or history of symptoms that are consistent with gender discomfort, or who exhibit symptoms, may choose to voluntarily separate them,” writes Hegses.
Hegseth also noted that those who do not identify themselves within the “self-identification eligibility window” are unwillingly fired in accordance with the Pentagon policy.
That policy coincides with an executive order from President Donald Trump, declaring that transgender identity is “incompatible” with military preparation.
According to GuardianPentagon officials say as of December 9, 2024, there were 4,240 service members identified as active duty, National Guard and Reserve transgender.
Around 1,000 transgender people were made public between February 26th and March 26th. This is the deadline that Pentagon officials initially set for those who wanted to qualify for a separate salary. But that deadline was disrupted by a lower federal court decision that blocked the Pentagon from enforcing the ban.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the pentagon will begin the discharge process of those 1,000.
Rae Timberlake, a spokesman for the transgender military advocacy group Sparta Pride, and one of the 1,000 people who chose to self-identify as transgender, warned that service members who do not take advantage of the acquisition offer could lose the benefits that they had taken years to occur.
“There is no guarantee that you will have access to your pension, retirement, or honorable discharge,” Timberlake said.
At the same time, Timberlake challenged the Trump administration’s characterization of the process as “voluntary.”
“This isn’t spontaneous,” they said. “This is the decision that people will come under obsession. These are 1,000 transgender troops who will serve if conditions are not created to force them for their own happiness or the happiness of their families.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
