Days after returning to the White House in January 2025, the president signed Executive Order 14183, which banned transgender people from serving in the military, declaring that having a gender identity that does not align with one’s sex assigned at birth compromises the military’s ability to “establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.” The following May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued Defense Department guidance on the voluntary and involuntary separation process for trans troops.
Earlier this summer, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2–1 against the part of the ban that forces active duty service members out of the military. But the Supreme Court already ruled last year that the administration could implement the trans military ban while the several legal challenges work their way through the legal system.
Hegseth’s guidance allowed for trans service members to self-identify and voluntarily leave the military in order to remain eligible for their full range of benefits. As the Times notes, while many of the more than 4,000 trans service members who were serving opted to leave voluntarily, some chose to stay and fight their cases.
Hearings before separation boards consisting of a three-officer panel began in February, according to the Times, with the Pentagon implementing an unusual level of secrecy around them. The paper reports that the hearings take place behind closed doors on military bases, with no cameras allowed and no transcripts available. Some service members’ spouses have been banned from attending. Rashid, who has represented multiple clients at hearings on multiple bases, says at least six of the trans service members she’s represented have been banned from their own hearings because they refused to alter their appearance and wear a uniform that aligns with their sex assigned at birth.
17 Comments
Blibly@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 21d
Just a bunch of stupid assholes. That's who's in charge.
Stupid assholes.
Racoonwithbenefits@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 21d
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
Republicans.
Barbarian@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 21d
Some of the first people to go in Nazi Germany were the Jewish German WW1 veterans. When a population is purportedly 'weak' and 'incapable', perhaps even 'poisoning the nation', the absolute worst thing you can have are patriotic members of that minority as living counterexamples.
That's why for the fascist, they must go quickly and quietly so as to not undermine the message.
Bad_Engineering@fedia.io · 24 pts · 21d
A small silver lining for me, now I won't be elligable for any draft they may try and implement in the future.
PointlessLifePersonified@slrpnk.net · 18 pts · 21d
Hell, I'd tell my kids to fake being trans to avoid fighting Trump's bullshit distraction-from-the-Epstein-files wars.
Carmakazi@piefed.social · 13 pts · 21d
That's like faking a Jewish heritage to get out of being drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern Front.
PointlessLifePersonified@slrpnk.net · 11 pts · 21d
Being harassed is still better than being forced to kill or be killed.
Carmakazi@piefed.social · 11 pts · 21d
It'll be better until you are forced into a "center" or a "facility" or a "camp" or a "hospital" where the entire purpose and function, stated openly or not, is to kill you.
Wataba@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 21d
Exactly. Its a frying pan to the fire situation.
If people are actually fucking stupid enough to continue letting the downslide reach this point, that's on them.
Bad_Engineering@fedia.io · 3 pts · 21d
It would be the smart move IMO.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 21d
Jesus christ.
Promethiel@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 21d
Oh yes. Purging your armed forces of anyone belonging to groups that historically had to face mountains of bullshit already to get where they were, and still on average manage to rise and achieve more than the (almost always already maligned towards them) baseline organization expectations.
That's one of Sun Tzu's most famous chapters on the Art of War. Comes right before the chapter outlining how you then foment widespread resentment amongst your own population and particularly target members of said same groups.
Incredible strategic thinking, never has backfired in the history of the World.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 21d
Reminds me of the Bad Old Days of Bush-Era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Ostensibly outside the bounds of military discipline, but heavily integrated into the politics of the various branches and divisions.
If you were useful enough, you'd be ignored. If you did anything to piss off a senior officer, or rival and ambitious peer, your gender and sexuality would immediately be weaponized against you.
That's before you get into hazing rituals designed to humiliate and degrade new recruits by conflating gender with weakness. Or the smears and slanders wherein the mere possibility of an accusation of deviancy incentivized extremes of chauvinism.
Akido37@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 21d
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a Clinton-era policy. wiki
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 21d
It was. Clinton found the middle ground between civil rights and fascist repression was to punish anyone who talked about the issue.
But he wasn't president forever. The Rumsfeld Pentagon put a different spin on it.
Zannsolo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 21d
From what I know from my linquist friends they are kicking out most of the people who can understand other languages.
theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 21d
Bad that rights are being eroded but good there is less imperialist enforcers and don't feel bad for any of these willing enforcers of oppression.