WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits. One Air Force sergeant said he was “betrayed and devastated” by the move.
The move means that transgender service members will now be faced with the choice of either taking a lump-sum separation payment offered to junior troops or be removed from the service.
An Air Force spokesperson told The Associated Press that “although service members with 15 to 18 years of honorable service were permitted to apply for an exception to policy, none of the exceptions to policy were approved.” About a dozen service members had been “prematurely notified” that they would be able to retire before that decision was reversed, according to the spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Air Force policy.
A memo issued Monday announcing the new policy, which was reviewed by the AP, said that the choice to deny retirement benefits was made “after careful consideration of the individual applications.”
All transgender members of the Air Force are being separated from the service under the Trump administration’s policies.
You mean the guy who mocked a POW opponent by saying he doesn’t like losers?
Anyone who thinks he supports the military has a favorite flavor of crayon, and that is not a marine joke.
Did everyone just forget that during his first term when he went to arlington he would point at caskets and call them losers.
Right? You’d think Trump would have lost the Veteran Vote, but no apparently they said “Thank you sir, I’d like some more sir!”
Yes… yes they did.
Sharp as a mayo sandwich.
I am so stealing this for work.
The guy that constantly ignores the constitution doesn’t support the people that swore to defend it? Crazy. Any military member that voted for him should be kicked out for supporting an insurrectionist.