Trans Servicemembers: Finally, a Number

Last week, a PBS story reported this remarkable fact: “Thousands of transgender troops are facing removal from the U.S. military because the Trump administration is banning them from serving.” That claim reflected frequent reporting over the last year asserting that 14,000 transgender servicemembers serve in the American military, though Newsweek put the number at 15,000.

I’ve been writing about this for a while, and the DOD refused for a long time to provide an actual number. Same with the individual services, and here’s a sample response to one of my email messages from Dec. 4, 2024:

The following is attributable to a Navy spokesperson:

Transgender-related information is not publicly releasable data. The Navy does not collect transgender information for reporting purposes. Current Department of Defense policy considers gender identity to be a personal and private matter.

Today, I finally got a response to my repeated questions, which I’ve agreed to attribute to “a DOD official.” The number of transgender servicemembers removed from the military so far under the new Trump administration policy is…four. The remaining number of those who face separation is larger, but a full order of magnitude off of the number that has been frequently reported as fact in the legacy media:

As of May 31, 2025, 1,404 Service members self-identified as part of the voluntary separation process for gender dysphoria. Four of those Service members have completed the separation process, and the remaining 1,400 Service members are pending separation.

But the legacy media will undoubtedly go on using “thousands,” and warning that a purge of that enormous magnitude will degrade military readiness. Keep that in mind when you read the news. So far it’s four.