The US air force is denying early retirement to all transgender service members with 15-18 years of military service, opting instead to force them out with no retirement benefits, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
These longer-serving transgender service members will have the same choice as more junior ones: quit or be forced out, with corresponding lump-sum payments as they walk out the door, the 4 August memo says.
The move is the latest escalation by Donald Trump’s administration as it seeks to bar transgender people from joining the US military and remove all who are serving. The Pentagon says transgender people are medically unfit, something civil rights activists say is untrue and constitutes illegal discrimination.
It’s really absurd on so many levels.
Beyond the obvious mentioned by others, a lot of these people are skilled in specific fields that are particularly hard to find replacements for. Like, the military has serious issues with retention of specialists (I mean the general term, not the rank) as of late, so to be intentionally kicking out a significant cohort of specialists on arbitrary grounds is just going to make the issue worse.
Not to mention that they’re setting an example that this could happen to any number of potentially targeted groups, who will probably avoid joining, or committing to a long term career if they do join, shrinking the pool of applicants for specialist positions even further.
It’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.