President Donald Trump is reportedly expected to sign two executive orders banning transgender service members and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from the United States military on Monday (January 27), the New York Post reports.
Trump previously signed an executive order revoking former President Joe Biden‘s 2021 directive allowing transgender people to serve openly in the U.S. military, however, the new executive orders will include additional standards on pronouns and gender identity, directly prohibiting an estimated tens of thousands of transgender service members from serving based on issues with mental and physical readiness.
“Unit cohesion requires high levels of integrity and stability among service members,” a White House document previewing the order states, according to the New York Post.
The executive order adds that there can be “no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands.”
“Individuals who are unable to meet these requirements are unable to serve in the military. This has been the case for decades,” the document added. “It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.”
There is no confirmed amount of how many transgender service members are currently active duty or reserve, however, a study conducted by the Williams Institute, UCLA’s School of Law think tank, estimated that there were as many as 15,500 at the time.
The DEI-related executive order directs a ban on “discriminatory race- or sex-based preferences by any element of the Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, or the Department of Homeland Security” and all instances of “discrimination” stemming from DEI practices will be subject for an internal review by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
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