President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender troops from serving in the military. We hear from Tony Woods, Secretary for the Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families: “This is playing politics with the military. And I think this policy will eventually fail, and will be looked upon as a shameful period of our country’s history.” Plus he talks about why this ban would put the entire country at risk.
Op Ed:
The Pentagon just reinstated ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ for Trans Troops. It’s a Betrayal of National Security.
By Tony Woods
In 2008, I was kicked out of the military because of my sexual orientation under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell” (DADT). More than a decade after the military overturned that policy, the Trump administration is playing politics and bringing discrimination back to our armed forces. But this time, instead of purging troops for who they love, it punishes them for who they are.
Today, brave transgender service members serve in uniform, many of whom have deployed, commanded troops, and put their lives on the line for this country. They serve at twice the rate of the general population, choosing military service at an extraordinary level of commitment.
The new order banning transgender personnel is written in broad strokes, just as the original DADT policy was. That meant nearly anyone could get caught in the dragnet—service members who had never spoken a word about their identity, those outed by others, even those falsely accused. The effects of this policy are even more sweeping as it mandates proactively kicking out any trans service member that has sought basic evidence-based, medically-necessary care just like any other service member.
The justifications for this policy echo the baseless justifications once used to discriminate against Black Americans, women, and gay people. While opposing the integration of Black troops into the military, then-Army Chief of Staff General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that “the army is not a sociological laboratory” and that such “experiments” would harm morale and discipline. In 1941, Senator David Walsh argued that allowing women in the Navy “would tend to break up American homes and would be a step backward in the progress of civilization.” More than half a century later, in defense of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Senator Chuck Hagel insisted that "the U.S. armed forces aren’t some social experiment.” And as recently as 2015, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee used nearly identical rhetoric to oppose women in combat roles, saying, “The military is not a social experiment. The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.”
This kind of thinking was wrong then, and it's wrong now. The reason my grandfather, a Black man, was able to serve in an integrated military was because we retired those old, backwards ideas. The reason my mother was able to serve in the armed forces was because people rejected the notion that women didn’t belong in uniform. And the reason I am able to serve today is because “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was finally tossed onto the ash heap of history.
But sometimes, bad ideas don’t die. They get repackaged and rebranded. That’s what we’re seeing now.
Under this new policy, even service members who have fully transitioned and are operationally fit will be discharged. Military academies will be forced to expel trans cadets and midshipmen. Recruiters will turn away talented individuals who want nothing more than to serve their country. It is a deliberate purge, one that echoes the discrimination that kept LGBTQ+ Americans out of the military for decades.
The U.S. military is already struggling to meet its recruitment goals, missing its target for the Army by 11,000 in 2023 and barely reaching its recruiting goals for 2024 after dramatically lowering them. Why would we turn away trained, capable warfighters—people in whom American taxpayers have already invested millions in training—at a time when we need them most?
History will look back on this decision as a shameful moment, just as it now does on previous efforts to bar women, Black Americans, and LGBTQ+ individuals from serving openly. And as before, this policy will not last. It will be challenged, it will be overturned, and one day, we will wonder how it was ever considered acceptable to turn away Americans willing to serve.
But the cost in the meantime will be real. Careers will be destroyed. Lives will be upended. Our national security weakened. And America’s promise—that anyone who steps forward to serve will be judged by their ability, not their identity—will be broken.
To those who have worn the uniform, this moment is not just about policy. It is about principle. Service members swear an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath does not ask for gender identity. It does not make exceptions. It simply demands the courage to stand up when the nation calls.
The question now is whether our leaders will do the same.
Tony Woods is currently the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Veterans and Military Families.
