Tracking Trump's executive orders: Trans military service

Executive Order 14183: Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness
Date Signed: January 27, 2025

Key Provisions:

• Executive Office 14183 claims that transgender military personnel “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards” due to the fact that expressing a “false ‘gender identity’” is inconsistent with the oath one takes to be “honorable” and “truthful” when joining the armed forces
• Executive Office 14183 further claims that “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”
• This revokes Executive Order 14004 from the Biden Era, “Enabling All Qualified Americans To Serve Their Country in Uniform,” which prohibited discharges and denials of enlistment based on gender identity

Interfaith Alliance Counterpoints:

• Interfaith Alliance strongly believes in the inherent worth and dignity of transgender people, and we oppose any policy that discriminates against them. The false claims the Executive Office makes that transgender Americans are unable to meet the standards of military service due to their gender identity is not only harmful but false. Multiple reports by the NIH, DoD, and the Secretary of Defense have shown that transgender individuals able to serve openly in the military are consistent with military readiness and that their gender identity does not affect their ability to serve effectively.
• Interfaith Alliance is alarmed at the transphobic rhetoric coming from the Executive Office. The spreading of misinformation surrounding transgender people is extremely harmful to not only trans people but American society as a whole. The offensive assertion that a transgender person’s gender identity is a “falsehood” contradicts millions of transgender people’s lived experiences, including transgender people who have honorably and faithfully served in the military. Labeling gender identity as a “falsehood” is not only harmful but dismissive of the sacrifices and experiences of transgender folks, both serving in the military and living in America.
• Additionally, the fallacy that gender identity is not consistent with “humility and selflessness” undermines the same values that the armed forces hold: respect, service, and dedication to a common cause.