“Secretary of War” and ultimate “alpha male” Pete Hegseth’s manly new policy promoting testosterone treatments to U.S. military servicemen over the age of 30 has been called into question by a federal judge who wants to know why certain people in the military are being offered gender-affirming care at the same time the Trump-Hegseth juggerNOT is forcefully discharging transgender members of the military because, in part, the government can’t afford the millions of dollars in military healthcare spending on treatments associated with gender dysphoria.
As The Advocate reports, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes today (Wednesday, July 22) ordered the parties on both sides of the lawsuit challenging Trump’s trans military ban to address Hegseth’s new testosterone screening and treatment program as the case moves forward.
Judge Reyes compared Hegseth’s new policy — which calls for all service members 30 and older, including women, will receive annual screening for testosterone deficiency and then have the option to receive testosterone replacement therapy if they have low testosterone — to Trump’s trans military ban which insists that members of the armed forces must meet high mental and physical standards “without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”
In her order, Reyes wrote, “The Court must assess the impact of this newly announced policy on the parties’ positions,” and ordered both parties to address six specific areas in a briefing, with a briefing deadline set for Aug. 17, on discovery and summary judgment.
Those six areas include medical guidelines for routinely screening servicemembers for low T, medical standards for monitoring those who begin TRT and a comparison of the medical and logistical demands of administering testosterone to trans men in the military with those involved in treating other servicemembers, including cisgender people, along with an accounting of the costs associated with screening troops for low T and then giving them TRT.
Reyes also ordered the Pentagon to explain why the “Department of War” should get away with “treating trans men and other service members differently.”
— Tammye Nash
