Military Boards Go Rogue On Hegseth’s Transgender Troop Ban

Military boards are disobeying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ban on openly transgender-identifying service members in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Nine of 12 Navy and Marine Corps review boards have recommended retaining transgender service members despite Pentagon directives calling for their discharge, according to The New York Times. The decisions raise questions about enforcement of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s military personnel policies and whether individual review boards are prioritizing their own ideology over the Pentagon’s stated readiness standards.

Directly after this executive order, the Pentagon enacted a system paying transgender service members to voluntarily separate from the military, the Times reported. As a result, hundreds left.

Those who challenged their dismissal faced three-member separation boards, according to the outlet. Those officers were given a set of criteria that a service member must meet to be dismissed. Boards of sailors and Marines have completely disregarded the criteria.

The Pentagon told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

“The Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion,” President Donald Trump Stated in a January 2025 Executive Order. “[E]xpressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service … 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.”

Marine Staff Sgt. Damien Contreras, a biological female, was put on paid leave in April due to a 2017 sex change hormone usage and her choice to identify as a male, according to the Times. In August, she was flown from Hawaii to Marine Corps Base Quantico to face a separation board. At the hearing, a government lawyer presented documents proving her struggles with gender identity. Rather than circle “a history of cross sex hormone therapy,” automatic grounds for separation, they circled “remains qualified.”

The Navy has nearly twice as many people who identify as gay, bisexual or transgender compared to other branches which indicated potential ideological bias, the Times reported.