Memo: Pentagon halting gender-affirming care
Step follows high courts decision to let ban on trans troops be enacted
By: Phil Stewart
and Idrees Ali
Reuters
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is halting gender-affirming health care for transgender troops as it ,moves to implement President Donald Trump's plan to kick them out of the military, according to a memo seen by Reuters on May 12. [2025]
.....
The instructions from the Defense Department barred any new hormone treatments as well as any surgical procedures for transgender troops, the memo said.
..... "I am directing you to take the necessary steps to immediately implement this guidance," Stephan Ferrara, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in the memo.
..... The Pentagon referred questions to the Defense Heath Agency, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
..... Shanon Minter of the Notional Center for Lesbian Rights said that the abrupt termination of health care was "needly-less disrespectful and cruel."
..... "It is shameful that tour nation's military would teat any service member this way," Minter said.
..... One transgender service member, speaking on conditions of anonymity out of fear of begin targeted, called the decision "the latest slap in the face" to troops serving honorably.
..... "If there was any doubt left, there is not anymore: transgender service members are no longer entitled to teh same standard of medical care as their peers," the service members said.
.....
The U.S. Supreme Court on May 6 [2025] permitted Trump's administration to implement his ban on transgender people in the military, allowing the armed forces to discharge the thousands of current transgender troops and reject new recruits while legal challenges play out. Reuters first reported on May 8 [2025] of a memo showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued instructions to start kicking out transgender troops who do not elect to leave on their own by June 6. [2025]
..... There are 4,240 active-duty and National Guard transgender troops, officials have said. transgender rights advocates have given higher estimates.
..... Trump singed an executive order in January [2025] that reversed a policy implemented under former President Joe Biden that had allowed transgender troops to serve openly.
..... A Gallup poll published in February [2025] found that 58% of Americans favored allowing openly transgender individuals to serve in the military, but the support had declined from 71% in 2019.
..... A former Fox News host, Hegseth has embraced conservative stances on culture war issues, including eliminating diversity initiatives at the Pentagon. He made clear his opposition to gender-affirming care for transgender troops in a post on social media in April. [2025]
..... Reposting an article that said the Pentagon would resume treatment for transgender troops, Hegseth said, "if this is true - we will find any way possible to stop it."
..... "Taxpayers should NEVER pay for this lunacy,' Hegseth added.