A U.S. Navy administrative order released Thursday outlined a new policy that forces transgender service members to separate from the military.
The guidelines, intended for military personnel who the order states “have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria,” stated that the Navy will revoke exceptions that allowed troops to follow the standards of a sex different from their “identification in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.”
The latter is a database of information for every uniformed service member, according to the Defense Department website.
Cross-sex hormone therapy will be allowed to continue while personnel are employed by the Defense Department, “if recommended by a DoD health care provider.”
The order recommended that service members with a “diagnosis of gender dysphoria” consult with a Defense Department health care provider for mental health counseling.
Active-duty and Reserve transgender service members can request voluntary separation or retirement, if eligible, no later than March 28, with some service members eligible for voluntary separation pay that equates to twice the amount of involuntary separation pay, according to the order. Those who volunteer will receive an honorable discharge, per another Navy order.
Once a request is placed, personnel will receive a non-deployable status.
Service members who fail to submit a voluntary separation or retirement request will face involuntary separation.
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The Navy order came several weeks after the Defense Department released a Feb. 26 memo, announcing its intent to kick out transgender service members.
“The medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service,” the memo read.
On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order — entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”— that said the United States would only recognize two sexes, male and female, in accordance with the sex assigned to an individual at birth.
“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers,” the order stated.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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