Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ended official recognition of Pride Month and every other “identity month” across the Pentagon, part of a wider policy that has also seen the department move to bar most transgen

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ended official recognition of Pride Month and every other “identity month” across the Pentagon, part of a wider policy that has also seen the department move to bar most transgender people from military service.

The cultural observances directive, titled “Identity Months D*ad at DoD,” instructed all military departments and components to stop using official resources or man-hours for events tied to Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.

The department’s guidance stated that troops are “proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics.” Service members remain free to attend such events on their own time.

The transgender policy followed a separate track.

After President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 declaring that a transgender identity “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for Military Service,” Hegseth issued a memorandum pausing all new enlistments for people with a history of gender dysphoria and halting gender-transition medical procedures for those already serving.

He later formalized a policy presumptively disqualifying people with gender dysphoria from service altogether.

The policy has faced sustained legal challenges. In June 2026, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that the ban was unconstitutional as applied to currently serving troops, with Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins writing that the record showed “animus motivated the classifications in the Hegseth Policy.

” The ruling blocked the discharge of active-duty transgender service members but left the bar on new transgender recruits in place, and the Supreme Court has since allowed the Pentagon to keep enforcing the rule while litigation continues.

Jennifer Levi of GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders, who represented plaintiffs in the case, called the appeals court decision a “solid rejection of this administration’s continued targeting of trans people.”