Six weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from the military, the Utah National Guard has begun encouraging transgender service members to leave the state force, a memo and email obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune indicate.
A spokesperson for Gov. Spencer Cox, who is the commander in chief of the guard, did not respond to multiple questions sent Thursday and Friday about the move.
“Effective immediately,” an email dispersed to the Army component of the guard read, “The UTNG will implement PHASE 1 guidance related to Executive Order 14183, Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.”
Lt. Col. Chris Kroeber, who handles media inquiries on behalf of the Utah National Guard, confirmed that the email was sent Tuesday, and said the order was only distributed to the Army component, and not Utah’s Air Force component, because an order attached to the email came from the U.S. Department of the Army. He did not have data available as to how many guard members the order might impact.
Phase 1, the email says, is “Voluntary separation for individuals with a current or prior diagnosis of gender dysphoria.” The attached memo included blank spaces for soldiers to fill out to request their discharge.
“Individuals with a current or prior diagnosis of gender dysphoria, exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria, 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 in the Army,” the email said.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox and Brig. Gen. Daniel Boyack during Utah National Guard Governor's Day at Camp Williams on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.
The next phase, scheduled to begin after March 26, will be “involuntary separation” — a process for which the Army has not yet given instructions, according to the email signed by Brig. Gen. Shawn Fuellenbach, the assistant adjutant general over the Utah guard.
Army personnel and employees were instructed in the email to “take no action to identify Soldiers subject to this guidance until 26 March 2025, to include the use of medical records, periodic health assessments, ad hoc physical assessments, or any other diagnostic mechanism, unless otherwise directed.”
‘We served shoulder to shoulder’
The U.S. military has a long history of excluding LGBTQ+ people from its forces. Prohibitions based on sexual orientation were codified ahead of the U.S. entering World War II, and although the total ban was lifted under President Bill Clinton’s administration, gay and lesbian members were barred from openly serving until 2011.
A ban on transgender service members living openly while in the military was lifted in October 2016. That change allowed transgender military members to access gender-affirming care and to change their gender identities in personnel records.
This is the second time Trump has moved to kick transgender people out of the military, the first attempt coming during the president’s prior term. Multiple lawsuits led to courts blocking the order, but the U.S. Supreme Court eventually allowed a revised version of the ban to take effect in 2019 — that policy barred transgender people from enlisting.
President Joe Biden repealed the order immediately after taking office in 2021.
In his January executive order, Trump claimed “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists” and argued the identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”
Transgender troops and recruits have sued over the action, and a federal judge said Wednesday she hopes to rule next week on whether she will block the order.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Army National Guard personnel at Snowbird Resort, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.
There’s limited data as to how many members of the military are transgender. The most frequently cited number comes from information compiled by RAND Corporation in 2016, which estimated that a decade ago there were between 1,320 and 6,630 active duty transgender members of the military, and approximately 830 to 4,160 in the reserves.
After the 2017 ban, a Utah National Guard spokesperson told The Tribune there were fewer than 20 members of the state unit who identified as transgender at the time.
Transgender members of the guard “need to continue to meet our standards and perform their duties,” Lt. Col. Steven Fairbourn said in 2017. “The key measures are your patriotism, your performance and your aptitude.”
The presence of transgender troops, Fairbourn added, “has not been disruptive. These are people we have served shoulder to shoulder with.”
A 2020 study of the impact of Trump’s previous ban by former surgeons general of the Army and Navy, as well as a former health and safety director for the Coast Guard, concluded, “the overall impact of the ban has been to harm readiness by compromising recruitment, reputation, retention, unit cohesion, morale, medical care, and good order and discipline.”
