On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, the Supreme Court allowed President Trump’s transgender military ban to go into effect while the policy is challenged in the courts, prohibiting transgender people who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria from serving in the military. The implementation of this new policy has reversed the rule put into place by the Obama administration in 2016 allowing transgender individuals to serve and receive funding for sex-reassignment surgery.
As stated in the Department of Defense’s proposed policy, most transgender individuals are now disqualified from serving in the military except:
- Service members who have been stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex before joining the military.
- Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria but do not require a change of gender and remain deployable.
- Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria prior to the effective date of the administration’s new policy.
- Transgender individuals without a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria may serve under the sex they were assigned at birth.
Transgender active-duty service members who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria subsequent to the Obama administration’s policy and prior to the effective date of the Trump administration’s new policy are still eligible to serve and receive medical treatment for gender dysphoria.