The U.S. House of Representatives rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense policy bill, that would have barred transgender people from serving in the military.
Introduced by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), the amendment sought to codify President Trump’s executive order barring transgender people from enlisting and requiring the discharge of active-duty transgender service members.
Trump’s executive order, issued in January 2025, claims that the “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints” associated with gender dysphoria, including time away from duty for treatment, are incompatible with military readiness. It also asserts that using pronouns that do not reflect a person’s assigned sex at birth conflicts with military values and hinders unit cohesion.
The order further declares that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” It adds: “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.”
Despite a federal judge finding that Trump’s ban was “soaked in animus,” discriminates against and stigmatizes transgender people, and draws conclusions that “bear no relation to fact,” the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it to take effect while legal challenges proceed. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that the ban violates transgender people’s constitutional rights by targeting them based on their gender identity.
Had Boebert’s amendment become law, it would have made the ban significantly harder to overturn. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), along with Dels. Kimberlyn King-Hinds (R-Northern Mariana Islands) and James Moylan (R-Guam), joined Democrats in defeating the amendment by a 217-212 vote.
However, House Republicans, joined by a handful of Democrats, approved two amendments introduced by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) targeting transgender people.
Mace’s first amendment prohibits TRICARE, the health insurance program for service members and their families, from covering “gender-related medical treatment” for people under 18, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical interventions. Critics say that by removing the phrase “could result in sterilization” from the existing restriction, the amendment could also be interpreted as prohibiting mental health care and counseling for youth with gender dysphoria.
Mace’s second amendment bans transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity at Department of War Education Activity schools, which serve children of military members. Beginning in preschool and continuing through high school, students would be required to compete on teams matching their assigned sex at birth, as determined by their reproductive biology.
Critics say the provision could lead to invasive questioning and genital examinations of school-age children, including those who are not transgender, leaving them vulnerable to abuse by adults claiming to “verify” their sex.
Five Democrats — Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Shomari Figures (Ala.), Terri Sewell (Ala.), and Don Davis (N.C.) — voted for both amendments. King-Hinds was the only Republican to oppose the restrictions on gender-affirming care.
The Congressional Equality Caucus celebrated the defeat of the transgender military ban while condemning the addition of the two anti-transgender amendments to the must-pass defense policy bill.
“Republicans tried to codify Trump’s trans military ban into law, but my fellow members of the Congressional Equality Caucus and I put in countless hours of work in order to kill this amendment — and we were successful. I’m grateful for the bipartisan vote to defeat this discriminatory amendment,” caucus chair Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“Nevertheless, Republicans were able to add two anti-LGBTQI+ amendments that endanger service members’ children at DoDEA schools and restrict access to medically-necessary healthcare, including mental healthcare for service members’ trans children,” Takano continued. “When Americans know they or their families are going to be targeted by or not supported by the military, that leads them to avoid signing up to serve or staying in the service — making it harder to keep the ranks of the armed services full and our nation safe.”
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), one of the transgender community's fiercest opponents, is reportedly considering a bid for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham on Saturday, July 11.
Graham, 71, spent 31 years in Congress, serving four terms in the U.S. House before winning four terms in the Senate. He developed a reputation as one of the Republican Party's most hawkish voices on foreign policy, consistently advocating for U.S. military intervention abroad and a strong military presence overseas.
According to a statement from his congressional office, Graham died from an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition in which plaque buildup hardens and narrows the arteries, restricting blood flow and increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
A Washington state high school wrestler has filed a lawsuit alleging that state and school officials placed her at risk by requiring her to compete against a transgender athlete and failed to respond adequately after she says she was sexually assaulted during the match.
The Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of Kallie Keeler, a 16-year-old junior varsity wrestler at Rogers High School in Puyallup, and her mother, Stephanie Brown.
The U.S. Department of Education, which launched an investigation into a Colorado public school district for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls' sports teams, may have egg on its face after failing to identify any transgender athletes.
As first reported by Chalkbeat, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) claimed that, as part of its investigation, it obtained athletic rosters from Jefferson County, Colorado -- home to the state's second-largest public school district -- showing that "male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls' sports teams."
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