Trump reportedly considers immediate dismissal of all transgender troops. Here's what that would mean.

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is developing an executive order that would allow some 15,000 transgender service members to be discharged from the military for medical reasons, according to several international media. Suddenly laying off so many troops would prove chaotic, LGBTQ+ military advocates say, and the military services would be forced to fill gaps and make up for a loss of experience at a time when recruiting remains difficult.

Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not deny the accuracy of the reports when emailed by Military.com, but said “no decision on this question was taken.”

“These anonymous sources are speculating and have no idea what they are really talking about,” she added.

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The proposed plan, as first reported by The Times of London, would involve signing an order within days of Trump taking office to medically discharge transgender troops.

Typically, medical discharges require service members to undergo rounds of hearings before medical professionals who determine whether a condition prevents them from fully serving in the military — a process that can last months. The sudden nature of the proposed layoffs could mean that service members near key milestones for receiving benefits would be kicked out of the military before becoming eligible. Some of these length-of-service benefits include the level of retirement compensation they can receive, as well as whether they can receive help paying for college or other education.

SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit organization supporting current and former transgender service members, told Military.com in an emailed statement that approximately 15,000 transgender Americans serve and are stationed around the world and in combat.

Additionally, SPARTA Pride clarified that many of these service members have a broad range of experience, stating that “the average transgender service member is a senior noncommissioned officer with 12 years of experience and at least two deployments.”

The mechanism of withdrawing so many military personnel at once could hamper the Defense Department as the new administration takes over, said Lucas F. Schleusener, a former Defense Department appointee during the president's administration. Barack Obama.

Schleusener, who is now CEO of Out in National Security, a nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ military members and those involved in national security, told Military.com that while the Trump administration's plan realized, this would be “the bureaucratic equivalent”. of a traffic jam.”

“This would require a lot of focus and bureaucratic commitment at a time when the new administration is considering both purging the military of officers it deems sufficiently disloyal and purging the civil service of people it believes are not disloyal enough. do not support,” Schleusener told the army. com. “It would be a monumental act of bureaucratic violence targeting people who have served the nation for 5, 10, 15, 20 years and who have accomplished remarkable things.”

Transgender service members have faced a wildly inconsistent political landscape over the past eight years, ranging from an Obama-era decision to allow them to serve openly, to a reversal during Trump's first term.

Trump revealed the move by announcing the repeal of Obama's 2016 policy on three social media posts on Twitter (now called X). The new policy became colloquially known as the “trans ban” in the halls of the Pentagon and was intended to prevent trans people from joining the military. It was initially blocked by four separate court rulings, but nearly two years later, in 2019, the policy was finally allowed to take effect.

President Joe Biden reversed it when he took office in 2021, and any changes now would likely face numerous legal challenges, just as Trump's policies did in 2017.

The Trump campaign has largely focused on attacking trans people and their growing acceptance in American society, particularly highlighting a handful of cases of trans teenagers competing in women's sports and insinuating that trans Americans are inherently sexual predators when discussing bathroom use, although there is no argument. There is evidence that there is a systemic increase in sexual assault when people are allowed to choose their bathrooms based on their gender identity. However, research has indicated that students who are forced to use locker rooms based on their sex assigned at birth when it conflicts with their gender identity face cases themselves. increased sexual assault.

Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation's “Project 2025” — a set of conservative policies for the next Republican administration developed by the think tank — called for renewing the ban on trans troops last spring, mirroring the executive order that would be under review by Atout.

The plan calls on a possible Trump administration to “roll back policies that allow transgender people to serve in the military,” arguing that “gender dysphoria is incompatible with the requirements of military service and the use of public funds for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion.” for the military should be completed.”

In the first five years after the Obama administration began supporting transgender service members serving openly, the military spent a total of $15 million on care related to their gender identity, according to a Military.com report , including $11.5 million for mental health care, and $3.1 million, or $620,000 per year, for surgical procedures. For comparison, the Department of Defense spent $84 million on erectile dysfunction drugs in 2015 alone, according to data obtained by Military Times.

During the campaign, Trump sought to distance himself from Project 2025 and some of its more extreme policy suggestions, ranging from banning pornography to eliminating the federal agency that oversees the National Weather Service.

But, after winning the election, Trump tapped several senior Project 2025 officials for key positions in his new administration and some of his suggestions – such as reducing the number of generals and admirals in the military – are now openly discussed.

The sudden cut of 15,000 military personnel would represent a substantial loss to the services if such a move were to come to fruition, Schleusener said, particularly at a time when all services are just beginning to recover from several years of not having achieved or almost achieved their recruitment objectives.

“In an era of recruiting challenges, preparation, recruitment and retention should be the priority, not radical social experiments,” Schleusener said. “We can’t really afford to lose a single soldier.”

— Patricia Kime contributed to this report.

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