The Defense Department will resume providing gender-affirming care for service members, a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to eliminate transgender individuals from the U.S. military.
A Pentagon memo dated Monday and revealed Thursday states the department will restore surgical procedures and cross-sex hormone therapy to individuals, including dependents of troops, as first reported by Politico.
“Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may receive appropriate care for their diagnosis of [gender dysphoria], including mental health care and counseling and newly initiated or ongoing cross-sex hormone therapy,” according to the memo, signed by Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs. “Service members may also receive voice therapy and appropriate surgical procedures.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
The directive comes after two federal judges last month blocked the Pentagon’s transgender service member ban and a third temporarily blocked the military from separating two transgender Air Force members in a more limited ruling,
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