California Democratic U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs is spearheading a congressional effort to pressure the Trump administration to rescind the Pentagon’s latest policy banning transgender Americans from serving in the military. In a Thursday letter, Jacobs and 41 other lawmakers urge Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to withdraw the controversial directive and call on President Donald Trump to reverse his executive order enabling the policy.
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The letter, obtained by The Advocate, highlights the significant contributions of transgender service members, who serve at twice the rate of the general population, with an estimated 15,000 transgender people currently on active duty or the reserves. Studies have shown that transgender service members meet the same military standards as their cisgender peers, and the financial cost of providing medical care for transgender troops is minimal compared to overall military health care expenditures. The letter warns that the ban could have detrimental effects on military readiness and recruitment, especially as younger generations increasingly identify as LGBTQ+.
“Any American who currently does – or can in the future – meet the standards required of military service should have the opportunity to serve. And in an all-volunteer force, transgender Americans serve at twice the rate of the general population and have proven that they are more than up to the challenge,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was signed by several high-profile Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Jerrold Nadler of New York, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Notably, several LGBTQ+ members of Congress also signed, including Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, and California Rep. Mark Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
Military enlistment has been low in recent years, with Fiscal Year 2023 marking the most challenging recruitment year for the U.S. Armed Forces since the inception of the all-volunteer force. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force all fell short of their recruitment goals, with the Army reaching only 77% of its target. While recruitment improved in 2024, the services still struggle to meet enlistment quotas, making the exclusion of qualified transgender personnel even more damaging to overall military readiness.
The Department of Defense reported a 12.5 percent increase in recruitment for fiscal year 2024 in October, bringing the number of recruits to 225,000. However, officials warned that challenges remain, as youth propensity to serve is at an all-time low, with 77 percent of young Americans requiring waivers because of disqualifications.
Related: Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military members
Last month, Trump’s executive order, signed aboard Air Force One, directed the Department of Defense to evaluate its readiness policies. It included language excluding transgender people from service.
That directive was followed up by a recently released Pentagon memo issued by Hegseth, which has intensified the situation. The memo not only halts new enlistments of transgender people but also pauses gender-affirming medical care for existing service members and holds up promotions for those with a history of gender dysphoria. The sweeping policy change has further marginalized transgender troops, leaving many uncertain about their futures in the military.
The moves targeting trans people marks a return to Trump’s previous ban, first announced in 2017 and later reversed by President Joe Biden in 2021. “These troops have been serving with courage, honor, and effectiveness in every theater across the globe, including combat deployments,” the letter read. “Their service has been recognized with countless commendations and awards.”
Related: Trump Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth enacts harshest anti-trans military policies yet
Hegseth, a vocal opponent of transgender inclusion in the military, has defended the policy as essential for military “readiness” and “lethality.” However, Jacobs and her colleagues argue that the policy undermines the armed forces by excluding skilled and experienced service members.
“This order is going to reduce our readiness and our lethality. Trans service members have served in the military successfully for years. They have met minimum military service requirements,” Jacobs told The Advocate in an interview. “It is already the case that if you are nondeployable for more than a year for any health reason, then you have to get out of the military service. That applies to trans service members as well.”
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including Modern Military Association of America and SPARTA Pride, have denounced the administration’s move, citing the critical roles transgender service members hold in combat, intelligence, and engineering—positions requiring extensive training and experience.
“Transgender Americans have served openly and honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces for nearly a decade,” SPARTA Pride said in a statement. “Thousands of transgender troops are currently serving and are fully qualified for the positions in which they serve.”
Jacobs also emphasized the financial and operational burden the policy will place on the military. “If I were DOGE, I’d be worried about this costing billions of dollars over 20 years to replace the expertise of the trans service members that would be kicked out,” she said.
Elon Musk’s DOGE or Department of Government Efficiency team has been entering federal agencies and stopping programs it claims are not worth taxpayer funds. Many of these departments have included diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Jacobs has been a leading advocate against the Trump administration’s rollback of LGBTQ+ rights. She has spoken out against recent efforts to limit gender-affirming care for military personnel and civilian employees, framing the new ban as part of a broader effort to erase protections for transgender Americans.
Jacobs, who has a transgender family member, acknowledged the broader emotional and psychological toll these policies take. “I know the impact that hearing this language has just on the mental health of my siblings,” she said. “To think that there are young kids all across this country who are hearing their government say that their identity and their experience isn’t valid, to me, it’s heartbreaking.”
She also addressed common misconceptions about transgender service members, including the argument that they join the military solely for medical benefits. “The U.S. government has already spent 400 times more on trans service members’ career development than on their healthcare,” Jacobs noted.
Legal challenges have already been filed against the ban. Organizations like Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have sued on behalf of affected service members, arguing that the policy violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses.
Related:HRC, Lambda Legal sue to stop Trump’s transgender military ban
For those currently serving or departing from the military due to this ban, Jacobs noted that the impact on veteran benefits remains unclear. “We are still waiting on the implementation memo from Secretary Hegseth and the Office of Personnel and Readiness about how they will be discharged and what kinds of benefits they’ll be eligible for,” she explained.
“They’re keeping us safe,” Jacobs said. “We should be doing everything we can to keep them safe.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Jacobs as queer.
