Military boards set up to push transgender troops out of the service are instead voting to keep many of them, the New York Times reported Friday, in a quiet break with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's ban.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gives a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico (Alex Wong/Pool Photo via AP)Nine of the 12 service members who have come before the boards have been approved to stay, according to the Times. Boards at Marine Corps Base Quantico, assigned to carry out the removals, "were doing the opposite," the paper said, and Navy boards given strict instructions to force out sailors were "voting to let them stay." A Marine staff sergeant who appeared in August thought his career was over, and the panel approved him.
The Air Force is the exception. The Times found no similar pattern there, where transgender airmen are being discharged quickly. The Pentagon has not said how many hearings have been held or how many people have been removed, and the proceedings are closed, even to spouses.
Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer now at Southwestern Law School, told the Times the boards "are being told to do something that they know is wrong."
The boards are the last step in a removal campaign that began with a January 2025 executive order. In a September 2025 speech at Quantico, Hegseth told troops, "No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses." The READ MORE AT SOURCE »
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