The new executive order, entitled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” was signed by Trump on Monday, January 27. The order states the mission of the U.S. armed forces is to be the world’s “most lethal and effective fighting force,” but it further states there is no room in the armed forces for people with mental health and physical health conditions. It names examples, such as eating disorders, and people who are suicidal and bipolar, that are “incompatible” with active-duty service.
The very next paragraph states that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The order’s blunt language, tying gender identity to mental health, is based on psychology that has gone ignored by many, including Republicans, over fears of being called "transphobic" by left-wing activists. The feeling you are born in the wrong body was recognized as “gender identity disorder” by the American Psychological Association before it caved, under pressure, and began using the vague term “gender dysphoria” instead.
An estimated 14,700 transgender people were serving in the armed forces as recently as 2019, at least according to a "Pentagon Pride" event held in June of that year.
Despite the clear issue of mental health, LGBT activists successfully lobbied the Biden administration to be “inclusive” and welcome open transgender personnel. A 2021 executive order signed by Biden, which reversed Trump’s ban, welcomed transgenders to serve in their “self-identified gender” and promised to provide medical care for their transition.
Four years later, the new Trump administration is taking a starkly different approach.
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood,” Trump’s order states, “is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
After reviewing Trump’s executive order, national security expert Bob Maginnis tells AFN it is a “common-sense directive” that recognizes the “core mission” of the U.S. armed forces.
“In order to do that,” he says, “our military men and women need to be freed of the leftist social engineering imposed by the Biden administration.”
Maginnis, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, says the order’s blunt language was appropriate after four years of the Biden administration and its “transgender agenda.” That focus, he says, compromised standards, squandered Pentagon money on surgeries and hormone treatments, and hurt unit readiness and morale.
Bishop Derek Jones, a retired U.S. fighter pilot, now leads the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. He tells AFN his organization learned the U.S. Navy diverted millions of dollars to help sailors “transition” from one sex to another. Those funds, he says, were diverted from weapons procurement to fight and win a future war.
“This goes against complete logic,” he tells AFN. “The United States military's job is to bring death and destruction to the enemy."
Regarding the executive order, Jones said it made a “very bold statement” about transgenders serving in the armed forces. “But it is the right direction to go,” he says.
