Transgender members of the U.S. military who were told they could not serve after President Donald Trump introduced a ban by executive order shortly after returning to power are being kept in limbo on full pay, according to a report.
A week after re-entering the White House in January 2025, Trump made good on his campaign threat to block trans people from serving their country, claiming their choices clash “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle.”
The decision was part of the president’s self-appointed mission to drive “woke” values and DEI out of federal institutions, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also accusing trans troops of enacting a “false gender identity” that “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
He has also labelled it an “insidious, radical, woke ideology” and declared in September: “No more dudes in dresses, we’re done with that s***.”
The ban meant trans troops faced a choice: leave voluntarily for double the separation pay or be forced out. After months of institutional indecision, those who took the first path began to be discharged in December while those who refused are still waiting.
The result has been frustration, hurt, and squandered expense, The New York Times reports, with key positions left unoccupied and highly-skilled troops eager to serve left sitting on the sidelines, still receiving their salaries as their expensive training goes untested.
The Department of Defense told The Independent it does not comment on ongoing litigation and directed us to the Department of Justice.
By the administration’s own admission in a court case filing, its “problem” was only ever a small one, with just 4,240 trans troops serving when Trump took office, accounting for around 0.2 percent of the 2 million Americans in uniform.
The same filing revealed that the cost of providing related medical care for trans personnel was around $52 million over 10 years – a pittance when, for instance, the current Iran war is costing taxpayers an estimated $500 million per day.
“It is the biggest waste I’ve ever seen,” Capt. Katie Benn, a decorated air defense officer who has served the Army for 13 years, told the Times about being benched.
“I’ve proven I’m good at my job. They just won’t let me do it. I’m trained to take care of soldiers, and my soldiers are over there in harm’s way. It kills me to not be there with them.”
Sabrina Bruce, a master sergeant in Space Force who led a team protecting classified satellites from cyberattacks until she was forced out, offered a similar assessment: “It’s such a waste; it’s so frustrating... There was no one to backfill me. I was just gone. And they couldn’t get a replacement for months because I was still on the books.”
Ryan Gunderman, an ex-captain who spent three years at Harvard studying to be an Army lawyer, only to be driven out after two years of service, said: “They spent more than a half a million dollars on me, just in education. Can you think of another organization that would look at my credentials and say, ‘OK, let’s get rid of her’?”
Navy Chief Petty Officer Parker Moore, who supervised 80 sailors running the nuclear reactor aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, spoke of feeling “really bad guilt about not being there” after being withdrawn with the vessel since sent to the Middle East.
Julia Becraft, an Army sergeant first class who served three tours of Afghanistan and was awarded a Bronze Star, was so distressed to be put on paid leave she checked into an Army mental hospital, where four of the other 20 patients she met were also trans.
“It makes you lose faith in the whole system,” she told the Times. “All I ever wanted to be is a soldier.... Now I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to put on the uniform again. It sucks that they’ve taken that from me.”
Alyxandra Demetrides, a Black Hawk helicopter ace stationed in Thailand, has meanwhile retrained as a commercial airline pilot after picking up around $300,000 from paid leave and separation pay. “That’s a lot to pay someone to not do their job,” she said.
Sgt. Clara Davis, a military police officer who attempted to challenge her dismissal before a review board, struck a defiant tone: “I’m not going to give up. If they want to take this uniform, they’re going to have to fight me.”
Events in Iran appear to have created a moment of turmoil for the military.
It emerged last week that the Center on Conscience and War has seen a spike in anonymous calls to its GI Rights Hotline from active-duty soldiers of all ranks seeking advice on leaving the service and conscientious objection over their opposition to the war.
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