WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The United States Navy will officially only recognize service members by their actual biological sex and is preparing to remove sailors whose gender dysphoria conflicts with that standard in keeping with the Trump administration’s efforts to “de-woke” America’s armed forces.
According to the March 13 press release, the Naval Department “will recognize only male and female sexes, with gender being immutable. Sailors impacted by these changes may request voluntary separation.”
The Navy appears to be looking to make separations as magnanimous as possible, with those affected allowed to keep all previously guaranteed bonus and benefits, with those eligible for voluntary separation pay receiving “twice the amount of involuntary separation pay, though this is not available to those with fewer than six or more than 20 years of service.”
“The Department of the Navy is committed to ensuring the privacy and dignity of affected Sailors,” the announcement added. “There are no active efforts to identify individuals with gender dysphoria.”
In his first month back in office, President Donald Trump began the reversal of past presidents’ politicization of the military by reinstating soldiers who had been discharged over COVID shots with their former ranks, back pay, and benefits; and by ordering the elimination of “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” (DEI) programs from the military and discharge of service members afflicted with gender confusion. The administration also banned LGBT and “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) flags from being flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities and ended observation of all identity-based “cultural awareness” months, including LGBT Pride Month.
Last month, a Pentagon memo indicated that actions like those taken by the Navy will be repeated across all branches of the military.
“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified from military service,” it said. “Service members who have a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition, are disqualified from military service.” Waivers will considered on a case-by-case basis, “provided there is a compelling Government interest.”
The steady rise of “woke” ideology within the military, which has persisted and grown since the Clinton years despite the presidencies of Republicans George W. Bush and Trump’s first administration, were intensified by former President Joe Biden, who upon taking office quickly moved to open the military to recruits suffering from gender dysphoria in a reversal of Trump policy, then had Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin launch a review of supposed “domestic extremism” within the military that many saw as a pretext to purge conservative views from the ranks.
Under Biden, the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Secret Service, State Department, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Customs & Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, and more all celebrated Pride Month with social media posts, official messages, rainbow flags, videos, and more.
In March 2023, the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) published an update on the administration’s work to infuse the armed forces with left-wing gender ideology, ranging from enforcement of preferred pronouns, to allowing cross-dressing and the use of opposite-sex showers and restrooms on military bases, to making it harder to access information on the negative consequences of such policies. Last November, the Pentagon requested an additional $114.7 million for diversity programs in the upcoming fiscal year, representing a total of $269.2 million in taxpayer dollars just on military diversity since Biden took office.
Until December 2022, Biden’s Pentagon leaders also enforced COVID-19 vaccine mandates on American service men and women, provoking lawsuits and threatening soldier and pilot shortages in the tens of thousands that only added to broader problems of force strength, troop morale, and public confidence.
Such priorities have taken their toll. During a Pentagon press briefing in April 2022 on the Army’s budget for Fiscal Year 2023, Under Secretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo announced the Army had “proactively made a decision to temporarily reduce our end strength from 485,000 Soldiers to 476,000 in FY ’22, and 473,000 in FY ’23.” The Military Times reported at the time that this “could leave the service at its smallest size since 1940, when it had just over 269,000 troops.”
Trump Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed the Pentagon to draw up plans to cut the defense budget 8% per year for the next five years. He maintains that America’s military preparedness will benefit from making spending more efficient and eliminating the distraction of identity politics.
