Pentagon releases guidance on trans military ban, seeks to lift court order
The Defense Department released new guidance on how it will enforce President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, and asked a federal judge to lift her recent order blocking the ban.
The U.S. Department of Defense on Friday released new guidance on how it will enforce President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, and asked a federal judge to lift her recent order blocking the ban.
The memorandum from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense says the Department of Defense will review service members’ medical records, and within 45 days give them self-assessment questionnaires, to determine whether they have a current diagnosis, history, or symptoms of gender dysphoria, which would make them ineligible for continued service.
Gender dysphoria is the distress experienced when a person’s gender identity does not align with his or her birth sex.
The White House, Department of Defense and lawyers for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The memo states that the exclusion of people with symptoms of gender dysphoria applies only to those with “marked incongruence and clinically significant distress or impairment for at least six months,” citing the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
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