One of Pete Hegseth’s first tasks as Defense Secretary will be to ban transgender servicemen and women and wipe out all mention of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs from the armed forces.
He will also bar the use of “invented and identification-based pronouns” and stop biological males and females from using sleeping quarters and bathrooms “intended for the opposite sex,” according to reports.
The new DoD boss was ready to act Monday on three executive orders Donald Trump was expected to sign, which were designed to banish DEI from the military and “return the Pentagon to the warfighter.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump and Hegseth have made no secret of their intentions to make sweeping changes to rid the Pentagon of what they see as the service being hamstrung by the Biden administration’s “woke” policies.
The president revoked Biden’s order repealing his ban on transgender Americans in the military within hours of being sworn in last Monday, but the executive orders will take it further, insisting that the medical consequences of transition treatment hinder the ability of troops to serve.
“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,” wrote CNN, citing a Trump administration fact sheet.
The White House document also states, according to the New York Post, that there would 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 says.
A second executive order bars any “discriminatory” polices related to DEI in the military and calls for a review by Hegseth. The third will reinstate active military and reservists previously canned for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to CNN, they will be reinstated with their previous rank and receive back pay.
The latest estimate of the number of transgender individuals serving in the U.S. armed forces from 10 years ago put the total at 15,500. No details have emerged as to what will happen to those serving troops. During Trump’s first administration, exceptions were made for transgender people already in uniform before the ban was in place and those who had been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession.”
