The U.S. Air Force has issued new guidance, in two memos signed by interim assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs Brian Scarlett, detailing how transgender Airmen and Guardians will be involuntarily separated — and denying them any chance to contest the decision.
Citing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s memo announcing compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to ban transgender service members, an Aug. 12 memo states that any Airman or Guardian with a diagnosis, history, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be denied a waiver and involuntarily separated.
Trump’s executive order deems a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or an attempt to transition incompatible with military service, likening it to bipolar disorder, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, and other psychological problems.
An Aug. 14 memo details the separation process, in which panels of fellow service members — known as an Airman Medical Readiness Optimization board — review medical and personnel records for evidence of an Airman or Guardian’s current or past gender dysphoria. If the panel finds such evidence, it flags the service member to their commander, who must then refer the individual to a separation board.
As reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine, by the end of August the Air Force chief of staff will appoint a general officer as the consolidated disposition authority to oversee involuntary separation proceedings. That officer will convene boards to determine whether transgender troops referred for separation should be discharged. Airmen and Guardians not already approved to retire or voluntarily separate would be fired.
Separation board hearings function like legal trials, with opening statements, witnesses, and evidence — including medical records, any exceptions permitting a service member to follow standards for a different sex, and requests to change a person’s sex in the military’s electronic records. Panelists then vote by secret ballot in closed session to decide whether the individual should be forcibly discharged.
The new Air Force guidance also prohibits recording the hearings.
Typically, separation boards allow flagged service members to defend themselves, presenting evidence of character, fitness, and on-the-job performance to argue against involuntary separation. They may be represented by counsel at their hearings and can appeal a board’s findings in federal court.
The Department of Defense’s officer-separation policy states that a separation board must “consider all relevant and material evidence” and “give a fair and impartial hearing” to the service member.
But under the new transgender-specific guidance, flagged individuals cannot contest their separation.
Individuals separated from the Air Force are ineligible for retirement, pension, and health care benefits typically offered to service members with more than 20 years of service. Those identified for separation are also barred from SkillBridge, the military’s job-transition program that helps service members apply their skills to the civilian job market.
Military legal experts advising transgender service members told The Associated Press the new policy is unlawful. While unaware of other branches issuing similar memos, they warned the Air Force’s actions could become a blueprint for expelling transgender personnel across the military.
Priya Rashid, a military lawyer who has represented service members before hundreds of separation boards, told the AP she’s “never seen an order like this.”
“I’ve seen people with three DUIs retained,” she said. “I’ve seen people that beat their wives retained, I’ve seen all kinds of people retained, because the board is empowered to retain anyone for any reason if they feel it’s in the best interest of the service.”
However, under the new guidance, separation boards are effectively directed to reach a predetermined conclusion if they find any evidence of a diagnosis or symptoms of gender dysphoria. Rashid said that constitutes an unlawful command by the Air Force and compromises the impartiality of separation hearings.
She also said the ban on recording would prevent Air Force leaders from reviewing hearings to ensure they were conducted appropriately and would make it harder to appeal a separation board’s findings.
“The Air Force just created a separate set of rules for transgender members under the illusion that fairness still exists,” SPARTA, an advocacy group for transgender service members, wrote in an Aug. 14 Facebook post. “Transgender troops are not asking for special favors, just equal treatment under the law and the right to due process.”
When approached by the AP, the Air Force declined to answer questions about the policy or its legal implications. Instead, the service provided a statement saying the guidance “is consistent with and responsive to Department of Defense policy regarding Service members with a diagnosis of, or history of, or exhibiting symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”
It remains unclear how many service members will be affected. In February, a senior defense official told the AP that more than 4,200 individuals had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But not all transgender personnel receive such a diagnosis, and not all pursue surgery or hormone therapy — meaning the number of transgender individuals serving may be higher.
The separation guidance follows a recent Air Force policy change affecting transgender personnel: the service will deny early-retirement requests from those with more than 15 but fewer than 20 years of service. As a result, those members will not receive prorated benefits — including insurance coverage, disability pay, and access to base housing.
Logan Ireland, a master sergeant with 15 years of service, including a deployment to Afghanistan, told the AP he planned to retire until his early-retirement request was denied last week. He then opted to pursue a separation-board hearing rather than accept a one-time payout for voluntary separation. But the latest policy shift makes his pending separation a foregone conclusion.
“I chose the involuntary [separation] route because I believed in the promise of a fair hearing — judged on my service, my record and the facts,” Ireland said. “Now that promise is being ripped away, replaced with a process designed to decide my fate before I even walk in the room.”
If you’ve been on social media this summer, those five words have been almost inescapable. Originally part of a British budget airline ad, featuring Jess Glynne singing a snippet of her hit "Hold My Hand," the soundbite has taken on a viral life of its own.
On TikTok alone, the sound has been used in over 2.1 million videos, scoring everything from bad flight experiences to cringe-worthy vacation blunders.
The Trump administration jumped into the Jet2 Holiday meme-a-palooza in its own way. On July 29, the official White House X account posted a video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in restraints, set to the ad's soundtrack.
The U.S. Air Force says it will separate all transgender personnel with 15 to 18 years of service without retirement benefits. The move denies them early retirement under a policy that normally allows some members with more than 15 -- but fewer than 20 -- years of service to retire with prorated benefits instead of completing the standard 20 years.
Under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA), service members approved for early retirement receive prorated benefits -- including insurance coverage, disability pay, and access to housing on military bases.
"I was always for IVF. Right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it.… We’re doing this because we just think it’s great. And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them," President Donald Trump said in an August 2024 NBC News interview as he mounted his reelection bid.
He pledged to support free in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, a promise that came just months after the Alabama Supreme Court controversially ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered "children" under state law.
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