Navy and Marine Boards Defy Pentagon Guidance, retain members in 9 of 12 cases

Navy and Marine Corps review boards voted to retain transgender-identifying service members in nine of 12 cases, despite Pentagon instructions to recommend discharge, Breitbart reported, citing a report from The New York Times.

The votes concern individual cases reviewed by military boards; the account describes them as resistance among some boards to President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. Breitbart says the cases are part of legal challenges following Trump’s January 27 executive order, Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.

The order stated that expressing a gender identity divergent from an individual’s sex could not satisfy the standards for military service. The source does not give the year for January 27, so the date is not specified more precisely here. The report also describes evidence presented during a hearing.

A government attorney introduced documents from 2017 that, according to Breitbart, showed that Contreras had changed genders. The account does not identify Contreras by a first name or provide further details about the hearing or the individual case.

Separately, Breitbart reports that in February Hegseth directed the Pentagon to pause new accessions involving individuals with a history of gender dysphoria and medical procedures associated with gender transitions. The source does not state the year of that February directive, or say that the pause determined the outcomes in the nine board cases.

Defense officials reported that 4,240 troops across active-duty forces, the National Guard and reserves had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria as of December 9, 2024. Breitbart adds that the total could be higher, without giving a revised estimate. The figure describes the diagnosed population across those service categories, not the number of cases considered by the boards.

The Daily Wire’s headline also says Navy and Marine Corps boards voted to keep transgender-identifying troops, while Mediaite’s headline characterizes military boards as defying Hegseth’s orders. The New York Times headline frames the votes as boards rejecting orders that barred transgender troops.

Those headlines do not add case counts or details beyond their stated framing; the nine-of-12 figure and the Pentagon instruction to recommend discharge are reported in Breitbart’s account.