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Deadline looms for Trump's transgender troop ban

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06.06.2025
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The Big Story

Deadline looms for Trump's transgender troop ban

Transgender active-duty service members must decide whether to leave the military on their own or be forced out by Friday under a deadline imposed by the Pentagon last month.

© Getty

The 30-day deadline, announced last month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is a life-altering decision that those interviewed by The Hill said is nearly impossible to make.

“It’s crushing,” said Cmdr. Emily “Hawking” Shilling, who has served in the Navy for almost two decades. “It’s heartbreaking.”

A naval aviator with 60 combat missions under her belt, Shilling oversaw a staff of about 200 people before she requested voluntary separation last month and was placed on administrative leave. In her latest fitness report, Shilling’s commander described her as an “inspiring leader” with “boundless energy” and “unmatched enthusiasm.”

“People excel under Hawking’s leadership,” they wrote, referring to Shilling by her callsign.

The report and Shilling’s own experiences contradict how President Trump and administration officials have sought to frame her and other transgender troops’ service.

Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order to boot transgender people from the military states they cannot satisfy the “rigorous standards” needed to serve, and that allowing their participation threatens military readiness and unit cohesion, an argument long used to keep marginalized groups from serving.

A 2016 RAND Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon found that allowing trans people to serve had no negative impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness.

Shilling, who currently serves as president of SPARTA Pride, an advocacy group for transgender service members, said she is complying with the Trump administration’s policy despite believing it to be unlawful and challenging it in court. She stressed that her views do not reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Navy.

Shilling’s lawsuit, filed in February with six other trans service members, argues that “banning ready, willing, and able service members does not further the objectives of the United States Armed Forces.”

A federal judge in Washington state, where the suit was filed, sided with the service members in a March ruling that

© The Hill