The Pentagon will resume providing sex change operations and other gender-affirming care for service members and their families, a blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mission to restore warfighting and readiness as the military’s top focus.
In the news that was reported by Politico on Thursday, the Department of Defense said that it was going back to the policies of former President Joe Biden after the Trump administration’s efforts to ban transgender individuals were blocked by two federal judges who decreed that they are unconstitutional, at least temporarily superseding the authority of the commander in chief.
Two federal judges didn’t just block the policy—they ordered the Pentagon to immediately resume providing “gender-affirming medical care” to transgender military service members.
That includes hormone therapy and sex-change surgeries. pic.twitter.com/10f0cri1dA
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) April 25, 2025
The Trump administration is appealing the judicial moves, but for now, the government is prohibited from removing those suffering from gender dysphoria or restricting their medical care, including taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery.
“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,” said Dr. Stephen Ferrara, the Pentagon’s acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for health affairs, in the Monday memo.
While Politico gloats about the policy reversal being a blow to Hegseth, who is currently the focus of another vicious media smear campaign, it’s really a blow to the system itself with the usurpation of the president’s constitutional authority over the military being threatened by unelected activist judges who have become the bulwark against reforms to the Democratic Party’s destructive agenda.
“But it presents another headache for Hegseth, who has made culture war issues — such as changing recruitment standards and reinstating the ban — a key piece of his effort to make the military more lethal. Hegseth has emphasized this theme as he’s sought to defend himself amid multiple scandals, including texting sensitive details of military operations in Yemen to multiple Signal group chats and a vicious brawl between his top advisers,” according to the outlet.
Last month, Hegseth slammed lesbian U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who overruled the ban, mocking her as “Commander Reyes” in a post to X.
Since “Judge” Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare. https://t.co/CNrl252Irs
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 22, 2025
In remarks at the Army War College on Wednesday, Hegseth told the crowd that under Trump’s leadership there’s “no more social engineering, no more climate change worship, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more pronouns, no more excuses, no more quotas, no more woke bullsh*t that undermines commanders and command climates.”
While the sex change surgeries may be back on at the Defense Department, the Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to intervene by allowing it to enforce the transgender ban while the legal process plays out.
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