#also also pete is transgender

[artchixs]

make him over monday! (it’s tuesday)

[taibobo]

Yeah okay tysm (this is about the eltingville ship chart again lmaoo) i remember like bits and pieces but i really fucked w/ it and i remember like pete domming jerry and thats about it lol,, your brain is so large and your headcanons. exquisite.. id love to see more eltingville stuff from you cuz i love how you draw pete and jerry lololol

this ask is very old (apologies) but i did actually find this chart finally. after like 10000 years. here you go + some bonus drawings from the same canvas

[batboyblog]

What Joe Biden has Done for LGBTQ+ People

I wanted to list out everything The Biden Administration has done for Queer people in the last 3 and a half years, but according to GLAAD it'd been 337 moves (and I noticed they missed a few things...) there was just no way to list every ground breaking first Queer person ever nominated to fill this or that job, every ally with a historic LGBT rights record nominated for a top job, every beautiful statement of support, every time he tried to get Congress to pass the Equality Act (support it!) So I've gone through and done my best to pick the ones I think were the most important, but everyone should check out the full list!

Day 1: Signs executive orders banning discrimination and ordering a full review of all federal agencies policies to better include and support LGBT people

Pete Buttigieg becomes the first openly gay person nominated and confirmed for a cabinet level post as Secretary of Transportation

Revokes Trump’s 2018 ban on transgender military personnel

Department of Housing and Urban Development implements LGBTQ protections in housing, becoming first federal agency to implement Pres. Biden’s executive order

First President to recognize and proclaim Trans Day of Visibility

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division issues an official memo that the Supreme Court's Bostock decision against LGBT workplace discrimination also applies to education through Title IX

HUD withdraws a Trump Administration proposed rule change, and reaffirms trans people's rights to seek shelters matching their gender identity

HHS announces the withdrawal of Trump Administration rules that allowed discrimination by healthcare organizations against LGBT people.

The State Department and later Homeland Security announce babies born to Queer couples overseas will be American citizens if one parent is American, in the past the child only qualified if they were genetically related to the American citizen parent.

The Justice Department files against a West Virginia law banning trans students from school athletics

Department of Veterans Affairs announces it will offer gender confirming surgery for transgender veterans. There are an estimated 134,000 transgender veterans in the U.S. and another 15,000 transgender people serving in the armed forces.

President Biden Signs a law making the Pulse Night Club a national memorial

The State Department creates an X gender marker for passports and other documents, allowing gender affirming identification for non-binary and intersex people for the first time.

The Census Bureau for the first time issues a Survey with questions about sexual orientation and gender identity

On the 10th anniversary of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Veterans Administration announces that soldiers discharged for homosexual conduct, gender identity or HIV status qualify for veterans' benefits

Dr. Rachel Levine becomes the first trans person confirmed by the US Senate when she was nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Health, she also became the first trans flag rank officer when she was sworn in as a 4 star Admiral for her job as head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, his makes her the highest ranked trans person in government

Holds the first ever vigil in the White House for Transgender Day of Remembrance

HHS announces rule change to reinstate and expand protections against discrimination in the Affordable Care Act, including denying coverage for gender-affirming care.

Social Security Administration reverses a Trump Administration policy and allows benefits claims by surviving partners in same-sex relationships, whose partner died before marriage equality was legal

President Biden signs the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (a bill he helped originally craft in the Senate) which for the first time has grant programs dedicated to expanding and developing initiatives specifically for LGBTQ survivors of domestic violence

The TSA announces new technology and policy shifts to improve the customer experience of transgender travelers who have previously been required to undergo additional screening due to alarms in sensitive areas.

The Social Security Administration allows people to edit their gender and name on records for the first time without legal and medical documentation

The US Air Force announces it'll offer medical and legal aid to any personnel families affected by state level anti-trans youth bills.

Karine Jean-Pierre becomes the first Lesbian to serve as White House Press Secretary

on 50th anniversary of Title IX The Department of Ed strengthens protections for Students against sexual harassment and discrimination

Veterans Affairs announces survivor benefits now extended to partners from relationships before marriage equality was legalized in 2015

President Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act into law enshrining protections for marriage equality for same-sex and interracial couples

The Department of Ed announces new rules around athletic eligibility under Title IX, declaring blanket bans on trans students violate the law and setting up strike standards for schools

The White House announced a suit of new protections for LGBTQ people, including a new job at the Department of Ed to combat book bans, a joint DoJ Homeland Security effort to combat violence and threats and HHS evidence-based guidance to mental health providers for care of transgender kids

President Biden signs an Executive Order directing HHS to protect LGBTQI+ youth in the foster care system, a rule they later passed requiring Queer foster children to be placed in affirming homes

The Biden administration joins families of transgender youth in Tennessee and Kentucky in petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse a circuit court ruling allowing a ban on mainstream health care to be enforced

President Biden Signs a EO expanding on past EO on equality and helping underserved communities

The Department of Education's Civil Rights office opens an investigation into the death of Nex Benedict. President Biden in his statement said: "Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are, and feel safe and supported at school and in their communities. Nex Benedict, a kid who just wanted to be accepted, should still be here with us today. Nonbinary and transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know. But nobody should have to be brave just to be themselves. In memory of Nex, we must all recommit to our work to end discrimination and address the suicide crisis impacting too many nonbinary and transgender children.”

[silverequation]

Silver the Hedgehog Gay Observations

Because Shadow isn’t the only one

Silver is what is called a bishounen character. he is a pretty boy with long flowing hair, eyeliner and he wears heel having rubber boots like Amy and Rouge

Silver sits gayly. this is supposed to be a rude way of sitting in Japan but it’s also exactly how gay people sit with their legs crossed

Silver stands with the exact same hip out standing pose as Rouge

Silver’s poses are generally very zesty whether he’s floating, jumping around or even knocked down

While Sonic and Shadow have hard rock theme songs Silver’s theme song is a soft dreamy techno tune about pain and love. Silver’s theme song was written about a gay love story according to its singer Bentley Jones. Bentley also supports Silver being gay or bisexual saying it would be awesome

Silver’s og  voice actor Pete Capella also supports Silver being bisexual and protecting bisexuals

In the Archie comics Silver has a female counterpart from another dimension named Gold the Tenrec. Gold is confirmed by her creator to be a bisexual with a strong female preference. Since the female version of him is a bisexual with a same gender preference it stands to reason that Silver is a bisexual with a male preference

Silver is a time based character. Going by the Time Stones and Paradox Prism time in Sonic is represented by rainbows and is therefore gay. Time is gay therefore Silver is gay for being the time character of Sonic

Silver is also one of the most popular Sonic characters among LGBT+ people and I seen many gay and transgender people identify with him, his attitude and his struggles with finding himself and doing what’s right

Silver the Hedgehog is still a gay Italian ice skater to me

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S. Baum at Erin In The Morning:

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s anti-trans military ban, including “Executive Order 14183—Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” as well as a similar policy issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed—some risking their lives—to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” wrote Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, in her opinion published today. “In the self-evident truth that ‘all people are created equal,’ all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less.” The court affirmed the President’s ability to discern who can serve the military, but emphasized the high standards needed to do so. “Leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving,” she wrote. “First minorities, then women in combat, then gays.” Today, trans people are the target — Trump’s executive order from January declared that being trans “conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle,” and that it “is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.” The order was accompanied by Hegseth’s anti-trans memo to the Pentagon on Feb. 7. To categorically ban trans people from the military, the government would have to show that trans inclusion has resulted in tangible, material harm.

The court ruled that this is not the case. Even more, Reyes says that neither Trump’s executive order nor Hegseth’s directive seemed to have received input from military rank and file. “Neither document contains any analysis nor cites any data,” Reyes writes. “They pronounce that transgender persons are not honorable, truthful, or disciplined—but Defense counsel concedes that these assertions are pure conjecture.” The plaintiffs, Reyes continues, have cumulatively provided over 130 years of military service. “They have served in roles ranging from Senior Military Science Instructor to Artillery Platoon Commander to Intelligence Analyst to Satellite Operator to Operations Research Analyst to Naval Flight Officer to Weapons Officer,” she writes. “They have deployed around the globe [...] One is presently deployed to an active combat zone. They have earned more than 80 commendations.” The ban was not only discriminatory, Reyes says, but also unscientific. “Who considered the information [...] is anyone’s guess. [Trump officials] do not know. Maybe no one, because one study is eight years old and the other two support Plaintiffs’ position [of opposing a trans military ban].” She characterizes the ban as “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext.”

Judge Ana C. Reyes rules in Talbott v. Trump that Donald Trump’s transphobia-laden ban on trans people serving in the military is “soaked in animus.”

See Also:

The Advocate: BREAKING: Federal judge blocks Trump's transgender military ban

[1americanconservative]

@nicksortor

WTF?! A federal judge has just ordered Pete Hegseth to RETRACT a post about disqualifying transgender troops from service

This same Biden judge, Ana Reyes, ALSO said the idea of two sexes is “not biologically correct.”

This is a BLATANT LIE.

How the HELL is this activist still considered a “JUDGE”??!

WTF IS GOING ON?

[autolenaphilia]

"Furthermore, where guitar rock was dependably masculine, synthpop’s presentation of gender was distinctly hazier. Reynolds argues that within American indie scenes, the predominantly English synthpop surge was associated with queerness – detractors scorned the genre as mere “art-fag” music, and an indignant response to the Trouser Press article characterized its performers as “elitist closet queens.” The genre displayed unabashed sensuality, sometimes through instrumentation alone – for instance, “Don’t You Want Me” and Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” both feature chilled, slinky riffs that suggest the push and pull of selfish desire. But these themes could be made lyrically explicit as well. Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant” declares, “Domination's the name of the game / in bed or in life / They're both just the same” over wonderfully unsubtle whip-and-chain sound effects, while Soft Cell’s campy “Sex Dwarf” goes even farther with its yearning for “you / on a long black leash” and moan-laced titular refrain.

Artists also challenged the era’s sexual orthodoxy through their public images – ranging from Martin Gore sporting skirts and leather bondage gear to Marc Almond and Phil Oakey’s penchant for eyeliner and lipstick and Dead or Alive’s Pete Burns’ chameleonic, surgically augmented appearance. Androgyny was a common motif for female artists as well, evident in Annie Lennox’s signature suits and the strikingly Amazonian airs of Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley. Alongside the synthesizer’s ability to evoke space-age sonic precision, these aesthetics suggested a utopian future – specifically, one where gender performance could be a free and unconditional choice.

While more chauvinistic purists could cite these representations as further proof that synthpop was somehow unnatural, the “gender-bending” nature of the genre encouraged female and/or LGBTQ audiences who felt alienated from the machismo of mainstream rock culture. It seems fitting, too, that new wave and synthpop directly stemmed from the contributions of Wendy Carlos – a transgender woman who, in addition to popularizing the Moog synthesizer with the revolutionary classical-electronic 1968 album Switched-On Bach and composing the scores to A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Tron, was also one of the first public figures to disclose undergoing gender reassignment surgery and later spoke openly about her dysphoria. For all synthpop’s connotations of Reagan-era corporatism and homogeneity, any closer look at the genre would place it firmly on the opposite side of the culture wars."

-Aline Dolinh, 2017

[voidingintotheshout]

Clubs unable to meet. Classic novels pulled off the shelves. Sex Ed discontinued.

Students at a Defense Department-run high school on Ramstein Air Base in Germany say school has changed dramatically in the last month after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched a vast effort to stamp out diversity education across the military.

…

[Pete Hegseth has] banned transgender people from serving in the military last month and declared identity months like Black History Month "dead" at the Defense Department. He ordered all DEI-related content taken down from the department's website – reports on diversity in the force now turn up an "Error 404" message in the department's data portal.

…

At Ramstein High, students in the LGBTQ Pride Club say it can no longer meet. Other cultural clubs, including the school's Black Student Union, Asian Cultural Association and Ramstein Hispanic Heritage Club were also impacted, they say.

Books have also been pulled off the shelves at U.S. military schools around the world pending a "review" for diversity concepts and language.

Matthew listed high school reading list classics among those that disappeared from the shelves of Ramstein High – Fahrenheit 451, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye.

[butchedemup]

pete conlan becoming the sort of older brother figure who’s is settling into his own as the capable and powerful vox phantasma and drinks tea and owns his own bookstore and acts like a man long older than thirty three sometimes and has a healthy sense of masculinity and no longer selling drugs to vulnerable people and getting his 60 day sobriety chip and being the mentor of the new hot mess in town not dissimilar to his own entrance into the season becoming the person kingston was for him to cody is so special to Meeeee pete i Love y ou Oh and also he deserves an emo transgender boyfriend

[teamstarkid-polls]

public campaining for ted spankoffski THAT IS A TRANSGENDER MAN AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE

• he has a tiny trans flag in a pencil holder in his office :3

• he’ll aggresively gender affirm pete and his friends

• intends to get top surgery one day however currently just binds

• him and charlotte are t4t

• him and paul are also t4t

VOTE TED SPANKOFFSKI TODAY!!!

My beloved trans douchebag!!!

[posi-pan]

I’ve been wondering for a few days, are there any examples in history of bisexual directly being referred to as an umbrella/general term and that pansexuality falls under it?

hi! so yeah, there are some. i have a pansexual history carrd (google doc) that has a section specific to bisexual’s history of including other mspec labels (google doc), but i’ve compiled some sources here for you.

→ in janet bode’s 1976 book view from another closet: exploring bisexuality in women, not every woman interviewed for the book actually identified as bi—one woman listed a bunch of labels that she’d be fine with being called, one of which was pansexual.

→ pansexuals were in attendance at a 1989 bisexual conference, as described in an issue of bi women quarterly.

→ the “bi-lexicon” in thomas geller’s 1990 book bisexuality: a reader and sourcebook included pansexual (and pansensual).

→ in the 1995 book edited by naomi s. tucker, bisexual politics: theories, queries, and visions, liz a. highleyman described bisexuals as “bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, multisexual, just sexual, androgynous, genderfucked, bi-gendered, non-gendered, gender-indifferent, or don’t label me human beings.”

→ the bisexual magazine that the bisexual manifesto came from, anything that moves, stated in 1996 that they were “interested in work by bi/pan/or-similar-sexuals” in their call for submissions.

→ in a 1999 issue of bisexual magazine anything that moves, liz a. highleyman stated “whether you call yourself bisexual, polysexual, multisexual, pansexual, me-sexual or refuse to be labeled altogether, if you are like me and find people attractive regardless of their sex or gender, then we need you.”

→ in robyn ochs’ 2001 bisexual resource guide, an ann arbor bisexual group was listed as being for “bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, multisexual, bi-affectional folks.”

→ the introduction to robyn ochs and sarah e. rowley's 2005 book getting bi: voices of bisexuals around the world stated, “some identify as queer, pansexual, or omnisexual. [...] in fact, as we debated possible titles, we considered subtitling this book ‘voices of bisexuals and other folks along the sexuality spectrum,’ recognizing that the word bisexual cannot possibly encompass all whose identities challenge the binaries of gay and straight.”

→ the introduction to the 2005 book bi men: coming out every which way by ron jackson suresha and pete chvany stated “bisexuality itself has infinite flavors—omnisexual, polyamorous, queer, pansexual, bi-curious, asexual, trisexual (‘i’ll try anything!’), bi-friendly, ambisexual, heteroflexible, transgendered, intersex, metasexual, and multisexual.”

→ pansexuals were in attendance at bisexual meetings, as described in a 2008 issue of bi women quarterly, which also stated it’s good for mspec people of different labels to “feel a sense of community through some unifying term,” referring to bisexual.

→ ellyn ruthstrom described a 2009 bi conference in bi women quarterly and stated, “i took the opportunity to ask a whole bunch of people who went to a conference with bisexual in the title more about how they identify,” and listed all the labels attendees used, pansexual among them.

→ georgia garvey in the 2011 article “bi times” stated “queer, hetero-flexible, homo-flexible, pansexual, omnisexual, and bisensual” are “all members of the bi family.”

→ a blog post from shiri eisner in 2011 included a graphic of an umbrella labeled bisexual with all the different labels that are under it, one of which was pansexual.

→ in bi women quarterly in 2011, shiri eisner described the 10th international conference on bisexuality in london and said, “being able to experience a space dedicated to the bisexual community, full of bisexual, pansexual and queer people was deeply heartening for me.”

→ in a 2011 issue of bi women quarterly, ellyn ruthstrom described a bi workshop “exploring the variety of identifiers that the bi community uses to name ourselves, from bi, fluid, pansexual, omnisexual, pomosexual and more.”

→ shiri eisner said in her 2013 book bi: notes for a bisexual revolution, “recently the word bisexual has been assigned a new use with increasing popularity—that of an umbrella term for multiple bi-spectrum identities” and listed pansexual among said identities.

now, i know that not all of these examples explicitly discuss bisexual as an umbrella/general term (those kind of direct conversations happen more recently, from 2013 and on, as the term itself is more recent), but it’s very clear that the concept of bisexual being a term/community many different labels and people are included in is very much not new, and that this is the understanding in the examples i’ve given where that conversation isn’t explicitly discussed.

my carrd/google doc for sources on the bisexual community including/welcoming all mspec folks is much more detailed and includes examples that go beyond ones that specifically mention pansexual—there are some that mention other mspec labels, some that don't mention any specific labels but discuss the conversations and debates about labels, and some still that are just examples of bisexual content/events including or just mentioning other mspec labels, all showing that the bisexual community, in a broad sense, has never tried to enforce bisexual as the only mspec label and has never been an exclusive club that requires use of bisexual in order to enter.

i hope you found this helpful!

[transsurlee]

can you drop more toontown transgender canons? (i would say headcanons but they are all canon actually. my uncle worked at disney) there are riots in the streets of dreamland and instead of crying for jellybeans they're screaming they want transgenderism. you need to do it. for the public. thanks

hmmmmm. i think all toons are trans actually

REAL TALK THO i've been squatting on transripley since sbfo dropped and i honestly think the whole task force crew is trans or nonbinary. they're the ultimate lgbtq friend group.

professor pete, barnacle bessie, every single flunky and mingler, samantha spade, and flippy are also all trans, they told me themselves

[slasherbat]

Bunch of random Richie headcanon's because I love him, and been thinking about him since I watched NPMD.

(Also projecting a bit)

• Transgender and uses He/They pronouns, but doesn't mind Xe/Xem

• Panromantic and Demisexual

• Horror enthusiast, that man loves sci-fi horror films and slashers. Especially 80s ones, Aliens is his favorite film franchise.

• 100% a fan of metalcore also, his top artist would be Bring Me The Horizon (Drove Paul & Emma mad with how much he looped Kingslayer by BMTH & Babymetal)

• Also a fan of Ice Nine Kills (He will force Grace to listen to the Orchestrated version of Welcome To Horrorwood, and is delighted when she likes The Shower Scene)

• His music taste also includes, but isn't final to: The Killers (Emma got him into it) Ghost and Pals, Sidewalks and Skeletons. He has a very interesting music taste, it's kinda all over, but he likes what he likes.

• DOG PERSON, he wants one so bad, and would name it after one of his favorite characters from an Anime 100%

• He's got a really shitty Attack On Titan Stick and Poke on his leg

• Paul got him his first binder for his 16th birthday and he cried while he was telling him how to bind safely.

• He's been best friends with Ruth since 2nd grade, Pete since 7th.

• He cannot drive, or be trusted behind the wheel of any vehicle (especially Golf Carts)

• He also can't swim, and has an incredibly big fear of large bodies of water of any kind, and the beach is a huge sensory overload. He despises sand with every fiber in his soul.

• Cannot stand Coffee at all, even the smell makes him feel like he's suffocating. Absolutely suffering in the mornings while getting ready for school.

• He's got a scar on his right leg from when he crashed a Golf Cart. The first thing he said to Emma when she showed up was that they matched now.

• Richie has trouble sleeping at night, and falling asleep, so sometimes he'll just dye his hair during the all-nighters. If he's not trying to do that, he'll binge watch some of the shows on his watch list.

• Ruth will paint his nails a new color like every day during lunch or when they are hiding in gym class. It calms Ruth down when she's stressed, giving her something to focus on, and Richie likes having his nails painted since he's horrible at it himself.

[darkmaga-returns]

Pete Hegseth has the combat leadership experience, academic pedigree, and profound love of country necessary to make our military great again. I served with him in the 34th Infantry Division and succeeded him in leading Concerned Veterans for America, and I wholeheartedly endorse his nomination to be our next secretary of defense.

President Trump knows that the Pentagon is in desperate need of reform, and the best way to accomplish that is to send a true outsider to run the show. The Make America Great Again movement has no better outsider to fix our broken military than Pete Hegseth, and he will also be a true loyalist to President Trump’s agenda. 

Hegseth’s leadership will ensure our military returns to the basics of defeating our adversaries, rather than pushing a social justice agenda. Our military is in the midst of a readiness and recruitment crisis, and reform is needed fast. Hegseth and I served as infantry rifle platoon leaders in combat. Warfighters don’t have the luxury of being distracted by frivolous matters during combat operations. We focused on what I called the Big Four: shoot, move, communicate, and stop bleeding. Transgender surgeries and understanding white rage didn’t quite make the list.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Marco Margaritoff at HuffPost:

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) expressed his sincere bafflement Tuesday about President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, which have caused widespread concern for multiple reasons including that at least four of them have been accused of sexual misconduct. Trump nominated former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was investigated for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old, to be his attorney general. He also nominated former Fox News host and veteran Pete Hegseth, who was investigated for sexual assault in 2017. McGovern, on the House floor, said these nominations are “beyond insane.” “Someone who is credibly accused of having sex with an underage girl,” the congressman noted Tuesday. “Someone who sucks up to foreign dictators and has attracted major concern that they can’t be trusted to protect America’s secrets from our adversaries.” Trump nominated former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) to be his director of national intelligence, despite concern over her 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Someone who paid hush money to cover up a sexual assault accusation, you know, to lead our military. He’s picked because Donald Trump likes him on Fox News?” McGovern said, referring to Hegseth. “Someone who says that tap water turns kids gay?” he continued. “I mean, this is the dream team? This is the dream team? Really?”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump tapped to be secretary of health and human services, reportedly argued on his podcast in 2022 that man-made chemicals in food and water are acting as “endocrine disruptors” that could be making children homosexual or transgender, pointing to their documented effect of turning some male frogs female. Such effects have not been found in humans. Dr. Andrea Gore, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas at Austin, told CNN last year that things in the environment can affect frogs’ sex but sex for humans is set at conception.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) rightly called Donald Trump’s cabinet picks “beyond insane” on the House floor.

[we-are-not-a-number]

Tdlr: Trump executive order that lays groundwork for a ban on 15,000 transgender troops currently serving in the United States military declares that being transgender is “incompatible with service.” It further mandates that all transgender personnel must be misgendered in official military communication and policy. The order also frames transgender identity as inherently at odds with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

The executive order, titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” claims its purpose is to “protect unit cohesion” from “ideologies harmful” to it—explicitly targeting the service of transgender troops. It asserts that the medical needs of transgender individuals are incompatible with military service, despite evidence that treatments like hormone therapy result in no operational downtime. Aware of this contradiction, the order offers an additional justification for the ban, framing transgender individuals as inherently “selfish” and “false.” Direct quote from order

Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.

While the order itself is vague on the specifics of implementation, its intent is clear: to serve as a ban on transgender service members. It declares that being transgender is “inconsistent with service” and mandates that pronouns used by the military must “accurately reflect an individual’s sex.” The order gives Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 60 days to implement these directives, including ending “invented and identification-based pronoun usage” and prohibiting transgender service members from bunking with others of their gender. If implemented broadly, the ban will have immediate and damaging consequences for both transgender service members and military readiness across the United States. SPARTA, a leading transgender military advocacy organization, estimates that removing 15,000 transgender service members would result in the loss of an $18 billion capital investment, with the Palm Center projecting an additional $1 billion cost to recruit and train replacements. Notably, up to 73% of these service members are senior enlisted personnel with 12-21 years of experience—expertise that cannot be easily replaced by the U.S. government.

When asked about the potential for a ban when it was first floated in November, Emily Shilling, President of SPARTA, stated, “The most immediate impact is that transgender people serve in every theater of the world. If it were a fairly fast-moving ban, you would be pulling these individuals out of their units, leaving critical gaps in skill sets, experience, and leadership positions that you’re just not going to be able to fill with equivalent people anytime soon, especially given the shortfalls in recruiting,” A transgender officer with years of military experience, speaking anonymously about the rumors of an impending transgender military ban, shared that she had recently spoken with several transgender service members deeply concerned about the possibility. When asked about claims that transgender people are a liability to the military, she dismissed the notion outright, stating, “Every trans service member that I have observed performing their job excels at their job, and that’s because we have to… Every trans sailor, every trans soldier, every trans Marine, and airman that I have known has excelled at their job.”