NEW: U.S. Army Officially Bans Transgender Applications

The U.S. Army has announced a sweeping new policy barring transgender individuals from enlisting, heralding a major turn in military policy under the Trump administration. The move follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month aimed at prioritizing military readiness and ending the use of taxpayer dollars for gender transition procedures.

The announcement came in a statement posted by the U.S. Army’s official account on X (formerly Twitter), confirming that the military will “no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members.”

The directive is a result of Trump’s January 27 executive order titled “Prioritizing Servicemember Integrity, Lethality, and Health.” The order mandates a rollback of Biden-era policies that had accommodated individuals with gender dysphoria in the military.

Under the new guidelines, the Department of Defense is required to update its medical standards to emphasize readiness and combat effectiveness. It also explicitly bans males from using female-designated sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities, reinforcing traditional biological distinctions within military ranks.

Trump’s administration argues the policy is essential to maintaining a lethal and capable fighting force. In a memo last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stressed that the military’s mission requires strict physical and mental standards.

“The lethality, readiness, and warfighting capability of our Force depends on Service members meeting those standards,” Hegseth wrote. According to the memo, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are immediately paused.

Additionally, all pending or planned medical procedures related to gender transition for active service members will no longer be facilitated by the military. “Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated,” Hegseth stated.

The decision marks a stark reversal of Biden’s Executive Order 14004, which had allowed transgender individuals to serve openly and required the Department of Defense to fund transition-related medical treatments. Critics of the Biden-era policy argued that it diverted military resources toward social experiments at the expense of operational readiness.

Trump’s administration has taken a hard stance against what it describes as “gender insanity” infiltrating the military. The White House has pointed to concerns over the long recovery times associated with transition surgeries, as well as the use of taxpayer funds for expensive medical treatments.

Last month Trump issued an Executive Order instructing the Department of Defense to revise its medical guidelines concerning transgender individuals serving in the military and to eliminate any previous directives that conflict with maintaining military preparedness.

“On the battlefield, there can be no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands,” the administration stated in its official fact sheet from January.

“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics,” the fact sheet read. “During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.”

According to Department of Defense statistics, there are 11,500 transgender service members in the military, making up less than 1% of the total force personnel.