Trump signed EO 14183, reinstating a ban on transgender military service

On January 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14183, "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness," reinstating a policy barring transgender individuals from openly serving in the U.S. military and rescinding a Biden administration order that had permitted transgender enlistment and coverage of transition-related medical care. The order states 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 declares that expressing a gender identity divergent from one's sex "cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." It directed the Department of Defense to update medical enlistment and retention standards within 60 days, end pronoun usage based on self-identification, and require service members to use sleeping, changing, and bathing facilities corresponding to their sex, with exceptions only for operational necessity. The order also directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue comparable directives for the Coast Guard within 30 days of the Defense Department's implementation.

The order reinstated the substance of a transgender-service restriction from Trump's first term, which President Biden had rescinded in January 2021 along with restoring coverage for transition-related care. Transgender service members already serving were not immediately discharged under the order itself; it directed the Secretary of Defense to identify further implementing measures within 30 days and report them to the President, deferring separation policy to subsequent Pentagon guidance.

Updates

2025-02-26 — Pentagon issued department-wide separation policy implementing the EO [4]

The Department of Defense's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, then led in an acting capacity by Darin S. Selnick, issued guidance implementing EO 14183 department-wide, declaring that any service member with a current diagnosis, history of, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria is disqualified from military service. The policy required affected service members be processed for administrative separation within 30 days of identification, generally with honorable discharge and retained statutory benefits, and allowed a narrow waiver only where a service member could show a compelling government interest directly supporting warfighting capabilities. The guidance also cancelled scheduled sex-reassignment surgeries and required service members to use facilities and pronouns matching their sex. The policy was disclosed in a court filing in the ongoing Talbott v. Trump litigation challenging the EO; a senior defense official said at the time that roughly 4,240 active-duty, reserve, and National Guard members had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria [5, 6].

2026-06-01 — D.C. Circuit affirmed injunction blocking discharge of transgender troops [7, 8]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, affirmed a preliminary injunction barring the Pentagon from discharging currently serving transgender troops while the underlying suit, Talbott v. USA, continued, while leaving in place the bar on new transgender enlistments. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, writing for the majority, reasoned it was "a much greater hardship to end a military career than to delay the start of one"; Circuit Judge Justin Walker dissented. The panel found direct evidence that animus motivated the policy's classifications, upholding U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes's March 18, 2025 finding that the ban was "soaked with animus and dripping with pretext."

2026-06-30 — Federal court certified nationwide class of transgender servicemembers [9, 10]

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia certified a class covering all transgender individuals who were in active-duty service or pursuing enlistment on or after January 28, 2025, extending the injunction's discharge protections beyond the original named plaintiffs to all class members. GLAD Law senior director Jennifer Levi said transgender servicemembers "have met every standard required to wear the uniform." The government had 45 days to petition for rehearing; as of early July no further appeal had been filed.

2026-08-28 — DOJ petitioned the Supreme Court to allow immediate discharge of transgender troops [11, 12]

The Department of Justice petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the D.C. Circuit's injunction and allow the Pentagon to begin discharging currently serving transgender troops immediately, without waiting for the Talbott v. USA trial scheduled for January 2027. The petition called the D.C. Circuit's ruling "gravely erroneous" and argued the policy regulates gender dysphoria and related medical treatment rather than transgender status itself. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the administration was "focusing on elite readiness standards — not DEI or woke gender ideology." GLAD Law, representing the plaintiffs, said the administration was "needlessly attempting to ram through policies that will cause irreparable harm to service members and their families" and that the court should deny the request.