The Defense Department said Thursday it will lean on commanders and existing medical screenings to find any service members whom it wants to discharge over the Trump administration's ban on transgender people serving in the military.
After the Supreme Court lifted its hold last week over the military's plan to separate transgender troops, the department said that about 1,000 service members had already voluntarily come forward to be separated in the first phase of the policy. Meanwhile, a legal fight over the ban is still winding its way through the lower courts[1].
Despite the unresolved legal challenge, defense officials now say that they plan to utilize the military's regular health screenings and order commanders to identify potential trans people in their units to begin the removal process for anyone who does not volunteer.
Read Next: Navy Officer Charged with Murdering Wife Last Year in Japan Hotel[2]
"The primary means of identification for the involuntary process will be through medical readiness programs," a senior defense official told reporters Thursday, specifically referring to the Periodic Health Assessment, or PHA.
The PHA is essentially an annual health screening that all service members have to undergo to assess their readiness for deployment[3] and service.
The official said that, going forward, part of the self-assessment questionnaire for the PHA "will require the attestation whether or not a service member has a current diagnosis or history of or exhibits symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria."
The official spoke to reporters anonymously as a condition of the interview.
Gender dysphoria is a specific medical diagnosis of a psychological condition in which a person feels that their birth sex doesn't line up with their gender. The Pentagon has been using the diagnosis as a way to identify someone as being transgender even though officials acknowledge that not all transgender people receive the diagnosis.
This distinction, however, has not stopped leaders like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from making statements like "No More Trans [at] DoD" on social media[4].
A new memo released Thursday[5] also said that "commanders who are aware of service members in their units with gender dysphoria, a history of gender dysphoria, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will direct individualized medical record reviews of such service members."
Defense officials have not been able to offer many other details on how the policy will work or whether they are placing any safeguards to prevent it from being abused either by commanders or troops.
Since even involuntary separations over the policy currently come with a payout, it is not clear what would prevent troops from using it simply as a way to leave service early. According to officials, an E-5 with 10 years of service would receive more than $100,000 of separation pay if they volunteer. Yet that same person would get around $50,000 if they were involuntarily kicked out.
Online, service members have argued and cited anecdotal evidence that many troops used the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in that manner. As of April, just over 100 of more than 8,000 service members discharged over the pandemic-era policy have returned to service, despite having the option since 2023.
When asked what safeguards were in place to prevent commanders from abusing the power to direct medical screenings of troops for gender dysphoria, the senior defense official simply said that they trusted commanders to do the right thing.
"This policy, like many others, will rely on their qualifications, discernment and judgment in how to interpret and apply the guidance," the official said, adding that Pentagon leaders were "confident and comfortable with commanders implementing the policy."
The hope among officials at the Pentagon is that most troops who are affected by the policy will simply volunteer to separate, driven largely by the promise of a much larger payout. That would spare the Pentagon from having to consider some of the broader and longer-reaching implications of the policy.
"They will be afforded a very significant, voluntary separation pay," the senior defense official said. "They receive a covered permanent change of station[6] move to their home of record, and they'll be given an honorable characterization of discharge, provided that there's no other misconduct in the file that's prompting the separation, so that they will be treated well through the process."
Yet, ultimately, since PHAs are conducted annually, the senior defense official acknowledged that it could take time to screen every single service member.
"It's not practical to move everyone in a unit through at one time," they said.
The official stressed several times that "this policy will treat anyone impacted by it with dignity and respect," but other officials at the Pentagon weren't able to square that promise with how trangender troops were discussed by their commander in chief.
President Donald Trump's executive order announcing the ban[7] declared that "adoption of 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" and "a man's assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."
"For the sake of our nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty," the order added.
Related: Pentagon Moves Out on Transgender Ban After Supreme Court Ruling[8]
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