- President Donald Trump has ordered that transgender people be barred from serving in the military. He classified gender dysphoria as a medical condition.
- A federal judge blocked his executive order, arguing that it discriminates against transgender people as a class.
- A majority of Americans support transgender people serving in the military, though that number has fallen in recent years.
In the first week of his term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. His order has undergone multiple legal challenges since.
Most recently, on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes denied the Trump administration’s motion to dissolve a legal order that would block the ban, per Fox News. The order was to go into effect on Friday.
The Department of Justice has since filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Reyes, who was appointed under former President Joe Biden in 2023, wrote in her decision that the service of women, gay, lesbian, people of color and transgender people strengthens the military and protects the nation. Trump’s order only affected transgender service members.
What justification did the judge use?
Reyes framed her argument around the Constitution’s prohibitions on sex discrimination. The case, Talbott v. Trump, was filed on behalf of six active military service members who are transgender and two who are currently seeking to enlist. More service members and potential service members have since joined the case.
“When you put on the uniform, differences fall away and what matters is your ability to do the job,” said Nicolas Talbott, the service member for which the case is named. He serves as a second lieutenant in the Army. “Every individual must meet the same objective and rigorous qualifications in order to serve. It has been my dream and my goal to serve my country for as long as I can remember.
“My being transgender has no bearing on my dedication to the mission, my commitment to my unit, or my ability to perform my duties in accordance with the high standards expected of me and every service member,” he said.
The Trump administration categorized gender dysphoria, or a feeling of incongruence between gender and biology, as a medical condition that prevents transgender people from serving with the same capacity as other service members.
The executive order says, “It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.
Reyes argued that gender dysphoria “is not like other medical conditions” and that treating it as one effectively enables discrimination.
Statistics on transgender people in the armed services
Openly transgender people could not serve in the U.S. military until then-President Barack Obama changed the policy beginning in 2015.
Five years later, in 2020, about 8,000 openly transgender people served in the armed forces, less than 1% of current service members. A memo from Feb. 26, 2025, found that the Department of Defense spent $52 million between 2015 and 2024 to treat gender dysphoria for these active-duty service members, per Newsweek.
The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that transgender people are twice as likely as other Americans to serve in the military, at 20% compared to 10%.
In 2025, Gallup established that 58% of Americans favor allowing transgender people to serve in the military. This number has declined from 2019, when 71% of Americans approved.
Republican support fell from 43% to 23% and independent support fell from 78% to 62%, while Democratic support dropped slightly from 88% to 84%.