“Devastating”: Air Force revokes early retirement offer for trans soldiers banned by president

Service mark of the USAF
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. Air Force has announced that it will rescind its offer of early retirement and associated lifetime benefits to transgender service members who served between 15 and 18 years in the force. Instead, all members have been told that they must either accept a one-time lump-sum separation payment (whose deadlines for application has already passed) or be involuntarily kicked out without any pay.

Trans service members and allies are calling the policy change an arbitrary, cruel, and dehumanizing betrayal of their service. Opponents are expected to sue in hopes of receiving any pay and retirement benefits they’re owed. For many, the policy reversal destabilizes their future financial, healthcare, and housing plans based on their expected benefits.

The August 4 Air Force memo associated with the policy change cite the president’s hateful executive order seeking to force transgender military members out of the armed services. The order says that trans identity is a mental disorder that is selfish, dishonorable, deceitful, undisciplined, and unfit for military service.

The newly issued policy — signed by Brian Scarlett, who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs — reverses an earlier policy allowing…

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