Intelligence officer with 20 years service speaks out about Trump’s ‘hurtful’ trans military ban

A transgender intelligence officer who has served the US military for 20 years in a vital and deeply-specialised role has described the “hurtful” impact of Trump’s trans military ban.

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the Trump administration has made quick work of fulfilling the Republican president’s campaign promise to restore his previous trans military ban which took effect during his first term in office but was subsequently overturned by Joe Biden.

At the end of January Trump signed an executive order which declared the armed forces have been “afflicted with radical gender ideology” and stated “expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service” – language which echoed the recently implemented government policy signed-in on the day of Trump’s inauguration that there are “only two sexes”.

Following this, secretary of defence and anti-woke stalwart Pete Hegseth implemented a ban on trans people signing up to serve in the US military if they have ever had a “history of gender dysphoria”.  

Most recently, a Pentagon memo filed in court declared trans service members will be “identified” and separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption.

Exemptions will allegedly only be granted if evidence can be “provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports war-fighting capabilities” and they “demonstrate 36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress”.

“Harsh reality of exclusion and discrimination”

Speaking to Task & Purpose, a publication serving the military community, Air Force Master Sgt. Alexandria Holder – who has served as a Arabic cryptologic language analyst for more than 20 years – believes she has been a “positive” presence in the Air Force and has “accomplished so much”.

“For somebody to turn around and say I’m not serving with integrity, and what I provide is not wanted or welcome in uniform, it hurts,” she said.

Sgt. Holder’s role as an Arabic cryptologic language analyst is described by Task & Purpose as “one of the hardest-to-fill and in-demand positions in the military.”

According to the Air Force, the role of an Arabic cryptologic language analyst is that of a “skilled specialist” and they are “responsible for translating and analyzing messages” and “provide vital intelligence to decision-makers”.

Another trans member of the military told the outlet that they felt the government had gone back on previous promises after lifting the ban on trans service members in 2016.

They said there is a “feeling of disillusionment” as there was a “trust that as long as we met the standards and upheld our duty, we would be judged by our performance, not our gender identity”.

“This directive shatters that trust, replacing it with a harsh reality of exclusion and discrimination,” they added.

Despite the Trump administration’s plans to totally remove trans folks from service, a survey published in February revealed that 58 per cent of Americans support having out trans men and women in the armed forces.

On Saturday (1 March) court filings appeared to show that no one in the Trump administration is able to concretely explain why they want to enforce a military ban, nor how many trans people are serving in the US armed forces at the moment.

Lawyers representing the US government in a case brought by human rights groups to halt the ban revealed that there is no way to count how many trans service people there are because the Defence Department does not track service members based on their gender identity.

Further to this, the lawyers were unable to provide exact examples of how being trans would prevent someone from serving the military with “honesty, humility, and integrity”.

Lambda Legal chief executive Kevin Jennings told The Advocate that the admission was “proof that the trans military ban is a solution in search of a problem”, adding: “If trans people’s presence was somehow disruptive to the military, they would have the data to prove it – and they don’t. This proves [the executive order] is motivated by animus rather than reason.”