The Long Fight for Trans Inclusion in the Military

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

45% : In 2016, after activists lobbied the Obama administration to change policies barring trans military service and a RAND corporation report concluded that the financial costs of allowing trans service members to serve openly would be low, the Department of Defense announced that the ban would be eliminated.
44% : On January 27, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Defense to modify existing guidance to indicate that military service is incompatible with "the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria" or "shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual's sex."
14% : Observing that the order effectively seeks to ban trans people from the armed forces, service members have already filed two lawsuits, Talbott v. Trump and Shilling v. Trump.

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