Acting swiftly in the wake of his Tuesday Supreme Court victory, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is giving transgender service members until June 6th to "self-identify" and leave the service on their own, before facing a subsequent campaign to root them out and kick them out. 

"On conclusion of the self-identification eligibility window, the Military Departments will initiate involuntary separation processes," Hegseth wrote in a memorandum. The Pentagon will immediately begin processing discharges of upwards of 1,000 openly-identifying trans service members. To root out another 3,000 or so -- or far more, if you believe activists -- the DOD will start scouring medical records looking for diagnoses or symptoms of gender dysphoria, or telltale medical prescriptions, the Associated Press reports. Active duty troops have a deadline of June 6 -- the 81st anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France -- to come forward and leave voluntarily. National Guard and reservists have until July 7.   

"It is just shameful," Jennifer Levi, a senior director at the pro-LGBTQ legal group GLAD Law, told Reuters. "It is senseless to fast-track people out of the military who are meeting standards and putting lives on the line to defend the country."

In a previous memo, the DOD asserted that “the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.” Between 2015 and 2014, the Pentagon spent $52 million on psychotherapy, hormone therapy and surgeries for trans service members, a Defense Department official told AP. 

After Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling, Hegseth reiterated his resolve to restore traditional military values and focus: 

"We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that shit. We’re focused on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness."

Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling wasn't the final word on the legality of excluding trans people from military service. The justices merely granted a stay of a lower court-imposed injunction against involuntarily discharging trans service members, while ongoing litigation continues. Brought by seven transgenders, the case that sparked that injunction is one of two major suits in progress. The other one also yielded a preliminary injunction against enforcing Trump's trans policy, but the appeals court for the DC circuit already put that one on hold.  

The campaign to cleanse the ranks of trans service members comes alongside declining public enthusiasm about their presence there. In a 2019 Gallup survey, 71% of Americans supported having trans people in the armed forces. By February of this year, only 58% said trans people belong in the military. Gallup gave no insights into the decline, but we're sure all the social-media-shared photos of lipstick-adorned dudes in uniforms played some part.