Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 openly identifying transgender service members out of the military and give others 30 days to self-identify under a new directive issued Thursday.
Buoyed by Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender individuals in the military, the Defense Department will begin going through medical records to identify others who haven’t come forward.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who issued the latest memo, made his views clear after the court’s decision.
“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth said that his department is leaving wokeness and weakness behind.
“No more pronouns,” he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa. “No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s—.”
Department officials have said it’s difficult to determine exactly how many transgender service members there are, but medical records will show those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, who show symptoms or are being treated.
Those troops would then be involuntarily forced out of the service. And no one with that diagnosis will be allowed to enlist. Gender dysphoria occurs when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.
Officials have said that as of Dec. 9, 2024, there were 4,240 troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the active duty, National Guard and Reserve. But they acknowledge the number may be higher.
There are about 2.1 million total troops serving.
The memo released Thursday mirrors one sent out in February, but any action was stalled at that point by several lawsuits.
The Supreme Court ruled that the administration could enforce the ban on transgender people in the military, while other legal challenges proceed. The court’s three liberal justices said they would have kept the policy on hold.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
