Transgender military members open up about possible ban: "This doesn't just affect me"
This week, a federal judge blocked a Trump administration effort to ban transgender people from serving in the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the administration plans to appeal that ruling.
The legal battle began days after President Trump took office, when he signed an executive order asserting that being transgender "conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life."
Two active service members spoke with "CBS Mornings" about what it means to possibly face the ends of their military careers. Beside the USS Midway in San Diego, Petty Officer Second Class Paulo Batista, an active-duty naval intelligence analyst, said serving in the military was a lifelong dream.
Batista had put that dream on hold to care for his father, who was dying from cancer.
"At the time, when he passed away, that was his biggest thing. He's like, 'Don't give up. Make me a promise you're not going to give up,'" Batista told CBS News' senior national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata. And he did make that promise.
An amateur bodybuilder, Batista completed his gender transition before enlisting at the age of 38.
"Nobody wanted to help me," Batista said. "I went through at least 22 different recruiting offices. I wanted to serve."
"It affects my family and my entire command"
In 2021, he got his chance when former President Joe Biden lifted the first Trump administration's earlier ban on transgender people serving in the military. But, four years later, he's facing the possibility of being kicked out.
"Our warriors should be focused on defeating America's enemies, not figuring out their genders," Mr. Trump has said. Meanwhile, the White House says service members receiving gender-affirming health care "are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements."
Responding to Mr. Trump's executive order, Hegseth issued a memo in early February that halted recruitment of new service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria and paused gender-affirming care for trans troops. Weeks later, the Pentagon said the U.S. would begin removing trans troops from the military within 30 days unless they obtained a waiver.
The Department of Defense was also given 30 days to identify and report current service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or show symptoms of it, with the first report due March 26. The Army was the first to announce new measures, banning trans troops from joining its ranks, pausing medical treatments and putting an end to promotions with immediate effect.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes this week granted a request for a preliminary injunction sought by transgender active-duty service members and transgender people who were in the process of enlisting, temporarily blocking Hegseth and the military from implementing Mr. Trump's order.
San Diego is also the home port of the USS Lincoln, where Parker Moore works as a nuclear electronic technician. The transgender sailor trained for more than two years for the role and has been actively serving for more than a decade.
"I have a family. I'm married. I have a 6-year-old son," said Moore. "This doesn't just affect me as an individual. It affects my family and my entire command. So, if one day I wake up and I can't, I'm not allowed to do that job anymore, it affects the other 500 people in my department who would now have to pick up that slack."
Batista echoed that sentiment and said that transgender service members are "everywhere" in the military.
"We're in the office, we're in the Pentagon, we're everywhere," he said. "We're deployed all over. So, to remove us all, you're not only affecting us and our lives in impacting everybody that surrounds."
The Pentagon doesn't have a precise number of transgender troops, because there is no requirement for them to self-identify. But estimates indicate that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 transgender individuals actively serving.
A 2017 analysis found discharging transgender troops would cost nearly $1 billion — far more than the roughly $52 million the Pentagon said it spent over the last decade on gender-affirming care.
"I think that most people who do have an issue with transgender service members are uneducated," said Moore. "I do not think they actually understand the process or may not have ever interacted with a transgender person."
Jacob Rosen and Melissa Quinn contributed reporting.
