The Pentagon dramatically expanded efforts to censor and remove books with topics such as diversity and anti-racism by ordering all military branches to scrub libraries of "divisive concepts and gender ideology" and pull those materials from shelves, according to a memo issued Friday^[1].

The memo, signed by the acting deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, directs all military educational institutions, specifically noting war colleges and the service academies, to "promptly" identify books on about 20 topics and set them aside by May 21.

The memo also announces the creation of a temporary Academic Libraries Committee "consisting of knowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals" from across the Defense Department who will work to help identify books for censorship and then help decide their ultimate fate.

Read Next: About 1,000 Troops Slated for Immediate Separation Under Reinstated Transgender Ban^[2]

The expanded effort on books at military libraries comes after the Naval Academy^[3] was specifically ordered to go through its book collection last month and the Navy released a list of nearly 400 books^[4] that were removed from circulation^[5].

The list included titles by prominent Black authors such as Maya Angelou as well as Black politicians like Bakari Sellers and Stacey Abrams. The list also included a book on female Jewish experiences in the Holocaust and a midshipman's research thesis.

In April, The New York Times reported^[6] the academy still had two copies of Adolf Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf, on its shelves.

An Army^[7] official told Military.com last month the Army's military academy at West Point^[8], N.Y., also compiled a list of books that it felt ran afoul of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's orders to strip materials related to diversity and submitted it to the Pentagon. However, unlike the Navy, the Army did not make that list public.

West Point declined to comment on its methodology of how it selected its books, or who was in charge of those decisions.

On Thursday, a tenured professor of philosophy at West Point said the storied military academy was interpreting Hegseth's order "broadly" and conducting "a sweeping assault on the school's curriculum and the faculty members' research" in an op-ed for The New York Times^[9].

The professor, Graham Parsons, said he was resigning from his post because the school was "suddenly eliminating courses, modifying syllabuses and censoring arguments to comport with the ideological tastes of the Trump administration."

The new memo appears to try to impose some rigor to the Pentagon's censorship efforts that, to date, have featured vague orders from Hegseth to remove all "news articles, photos, and videos promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including content related to critical race theory, gender ideology, and identity-based programs."

The result was the removal of books that highlighted women who fought in the U.S. Civil War^[10]; deleted websites that featured Kristen Griest^[11], the first woman to graduate from the Army's famously grueling Ranger School; and lessons in Air Force^[12] boot camp that featured the Tuskegee Airmen, the historic Black aviators, and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots.

The removals prompted outrage after becoming public, and some of the content has been restored^[13]. However, Hegseth's office has not offered a full accounting of what has been removed to date.

Contained within the memo is a list of standardized topics used by the Library of Congress to direct military officials in their efforts. The list contains such terms as affirmative action, anti-racism, white privilege and discrimination, as well as a host of topics around gender dysphoria and transgender people, including transgender people in the military.

Hegseth and the Pentagon announced they will push forward with a ban on transgender troops^[14], saying they are unfit for service, following a Supreme Court decision to lift a lower court's temporary injunction.

After all the books are identified and removed from access by troops, the memo says the library committee will then decide what to do with the material by no later than June.

-- Steve Beynon contributed to this report.

Related: Naval Academy Staff Removed Display on Female Jewish Graduates for Hegseth Visit^[15]

About 1,000 service members who volunteered to leave the military after the Trump administration unveiled its transgender troops ban will now have their separations processed after the Supreme Court paved the way for the ban to take effect, the Pentagon said Thursday evening.

The Pentagon is also reopening the window to choose voluntary separation following this week's Supreme Court ruling, giving active-duty transgender troops who want to leave until June 6 and reservists until July 7 to come forward, or face involuntary separation later.

"As the president of the United States clearly stated in Executive Order 14183, 'Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,' Jan. 27, 2025, expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Thursday memo^[1] that directed the military to resume implementing the transgender ban.

Read Next: Osprey Safety Investigation Stalls in Congress, Angering Gold Star Families^[2]

While a Thursday statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said "approximately 1,000 service members who have self-identified as being diagnosed with gender dysphoria will begin the voluntary separation process," the Pentagon on Friday said it was not able to provide a more specific number of troops being separated.

Meanwhile, two lawsuits against the ban continue. In a filing Friday, lawyers for transgender troops in one of the lawsuits pointed to Hegseth's memo as further evidence the ban is discriminatory.

"The directive restates the unsupported assertion that 'expressing a false "gender identity" divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,' further corroborating the district court's finding that the transgender military ban was motivated by animus against transgender people as a group," Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law, wrote in a letter to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can enforce^[3] its transgender military ban while lower courts still consider lawsuits against the policy.

Two appeals courts are still weighing whether to keep in place injunctions that were issued by federal district courts, meaning the policy could still be blocked again. But the Supreme Court ruling paused the injunctions while those deliberations are ongoing, allowing the Pentagon to start separating troops in the meantime.

Under the Pentagon policy, troops with a history of gender dysphoria, who "exhibit symptoms" of gender dysphoria or who have transitioned to their gender identity are now disqualified from service.

The policy, which was issued in February to implement Trump’s January order, also outlined a way for transgender troops to choose to leave the military before they are kicked out. Service members who voluntarily separate are eligible for separation pay^[4] that is twice as much as they would receive if they later get booted, according to the policy.

The original deadline for service members to elect voluntary separation was in March, but the injunctions upended that timeline.

Troops who want to self-identify as being transgender now have until June 6 -- in less than a month and during LGBTQ+ Pride Month -- to come forward if they are on active duty and July 7 if they are in the reserves.

The approximately 1,000 troops who Parnell said will immediately begin the voluntary separation process are troops who came forward in March.

The number of troops the Pentagon claims chose to separate represents about a quarter of the 4,240 active-duty and reservist service members who defense officials earlier this year said have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria is the medical term for the feeling of distress caused by someone's gender identity not matching their birth sex.

Not every transgender person is diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but the Pentagon has said it does not track whether someone is transgender so a gender dysphoria diagnosis in a service member's medical record is the department's best way of determining whether they are transgender.

Defense officials at the Pentagon have not been able to say what specific processes are in place to prevent non-transgender troops from saying they are transgender as a way to leave the military. Similarly, it's not clear how officials will track down trangender troops who have not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and choose not to come forward.

One official, however, said those answers may come when the individual services eventually release their specific policies.

After the voluntary separation window closes in June for active duty and July for reservists, the Pentagon will begin involuntary separations, Hegseth's Thursday memo said.

A defense official told Military.com those separations will be based on a review of medical records. They added those reviews have not begun yet.

Related: Ban on Transgender Troops Can Be Imposed During Lawsuits, Supreme Court Says^[5]

About 1,000 service members who volunteered to leave the military after the Trump administration unveiled its transgender troops ban will now have their separations processed after the Supreme Court paved the way for the ban to take effect, the Pentagon said Thursday evening.

The Pentagon is also reopening the window to choose voluntary separation following this week's Supreme Court ruling, giving active-duty transgender troops who want to leave until June 6 and reservists until July 7 to come forward, or face involuntary separation later.

"As the president of the United States clearly stated in Executive Order 14183, 'Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,' Jan. 27, 2025, expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Thursday memo^[1] that directed the military to resume implementing the transgender ban.

Read Next: Osprey Safety Investigation Stalls in Congress, Angering Gold Star Families^[2]

While a Thursday statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said "approximately 1,000 service members who have self-identified as being diagnosed with gender dysphoria will begin the voluntary separation process," the Pentagon on Friday said it was not able to provide a more specific number of troops being separated.

Meanwhile, two lawsuits against the ban continue. In a filing Friday, lawyers for transgender troops in one of the lawsuits pointed to Hegseth's memo as further evidence the ban is discriminatory.

"The directive restates the unsupported assertion that 'expressing a false "gender identity" divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,' further corroborating the district court's finding that the transgender military ban was motivated by animus against transgender people as a group," Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law, wrote in a letter to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can enforce^[3] its transgender military ban while lower courts still consider lawsuits against the policy.

Two appeals courts are still weighing whether to keep in place injunctions that were issued by federal district courts, meaning the policy could still be blocked again. But the Supreme Court ruling paused the injunctions while those deliberations are ongoing, allowing the Pentagon to start separating troops in the meantime.

Under the Pentagon policy, troops with a history of gender dysphoria, who "exhibit symptoms" of gender dysphoria or who have transitioned to their gender identity are now disqualified from service.

The policy, which was issued in February to implement Trump’s January order, also outlined a way for transgender troops to choose to leave the military before they are kicked out. Service members who voluntarily separate are eligible for separation pay^[4] that is twice as much as they would receive if they later get booted, according to the policy.

The original deadline for service members to elect voluntary separation was in March, but the injunctions upended that timeline.

Troops who want to self-identify as being transgender now have until June 6 -- in less than a month and during LGBTQ+ Pride Month -- to come forward if they are on active duty and July 7 if they are in the reserves.

The approximately 1,000 troops who Parnell said will immediately begin the voluntary separation process are troops who came forward in March.

The number of troops the Pentagon claims chose to separate represents about a quarter of the 4,240 active-duty and reservist service members who defense officials earlier this year said have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria is the medical term for the feeling of distress caused by someone's gender identity not matching their birth sex.

Not every transgender person is diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but the Pentagon has said it does not track whether someone is transgender so a gender dysphoria diagnosis in a service member's medical record is the department's best way of determining whether they are transgender.

Defense officials at the Pentagon have not been able to say what specific processes are in place to prevent non-transgender troops from saying they are transgender as a way to leave the military. Similarly, it's not clear how officials will track down trangender troops who have not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and choose not to come forward.

One official, however, said those answers may come when the individual services eventually release their specific policies.

After the voluntary separation window closes in June for active duty and July for reservists, the Pentagon will begin involuntary separations, Hegseth's Thursday memo said.

A defense official told Military.com those separations will be based on a review of medical records. They added those reviews have not begun yet.

Related: Ban on Transgender Troops Can Be Imposed During Lawsuits, Supreme Court Says^[5]