Defense Department reinstates gender-affirming care for trans troops

The Department of Defense will resume providing gender-affirming care for transgender service members, according to a leaked memo obtained by Politico.

It’s “an embarrassing setback to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to restrict their participation,” the outlet reports.

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The Defense Department is complying with a court order that found the restrictions on trans service members unconstitutional. Federal judges have blocked the ban in two separate lawsuits, and one appeals court has denied the department’s request to lift the block while legal challenges proceed. Donald Trump’s administration has now appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may receive appropriate care for their diagnosis of [gender dysphoria], including mental health care and counseling and newly initiated or ongoing cross-sex hormone therapy,” Dr. Stephen Ferrara, the acting assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, said in the memo obtained by Politico. It was dated Monday. This returns the department to its trans-inclusive policy implemented during Joe Biden’s presidency.

The Trump administration policy stems from an executive order he signed in February to reinstate the trans ban from his first presidency. Lawyers for the administration have argued it's simply a ban on service members experiencing gender dysphoria, but courts have held that it's a ban on all trans troops and therefore discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The government’s Supreme Court request follows the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s upholding of an injunction in one of the cases, Shilling v. United States. The appeals court upheld U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle's ruling thatblocked the enforcement of Trump's executive order, . He ruled that the policy likely violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee and called it “dramatic and facially unfair,” citing a lack of evidence that transgender troops harm military readiness.

In the other case, Talbott v. United States, D.C. District Judge Ana Reyes described the ban as “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext.” The administration appealed Reyes's injunction against the ban in the federal appeals court for the D.C. Circuit, but in a hearing Tuesday, Department of Justice lawyers struggled to defend the ban.

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