The Department of the Navy is offering transgender sailors and Marines the option to voluntarily separate from the service by March 28. Otherwise, they risk being booted from the service — cutting the benefits they’re eligible for in half, according to a Thursday memo released by the Department of the Navy.
The policy aligns with an executive order that President Donald Trump signed in January to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s subsequent orders in February instructing each of the service branches to start separating transgender troops within 30 days.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Terence Emmert said in the memo that the Department of the Navy recognizes male and female as the only two sexes, and that “an individual’s sex is immutable, unchanging during a person’s life.”
As a result, Emmert said that those who have a history or “exhibit symptoms consistent with” gender dysphoria may no longer serve in the military and may voluntarily elect to depart the service by March 28. After that date, the Navy will remove sailors and Marines involuntarily from their respective services.
FEDERAL JUDGE RIPS DOJ LAWYERS, DEMANDS WRITTEN RETRACTION FROM HEGSETH OVER TRANSGENDER MILITARY POLICY POST
The Navy is offering transgender sailors and Marines the option to voluntarily separate from the service by March 28. (Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“A history of cross-sex hormone therapy or sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition is disqualifying for applicants for military service, and incompatible with military service for military personnel,” the memo said.
Even so, the Navy said it will not go through medical records or health assessments to identify transgender service members, unless explicitly requested to do so.
Transgender service members who don’t take the Navy up on its offer to…
