Army two-phase separation policy; identification criteria include grooming waivers and social media

Army guidance established Phase I (voluntary, ending June 6, 2025) and Phase II (involuntary, beginning June 7, 2025), directing commands to initiate separation within 30 days of identifying a soldier with "a current diagnosis or history of, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria" or a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or transition surgery. Identification criteria included prior requests for grooming-standard exemptions and "open or overt conduct" in the unit or on social media. Separations are characterized as honorable; soldiers are placed on administrative absence with pay pending separation, immediately rendered non-deployable (with redeployment from theater within 30 days), and made subject to birth-sex uniform, grooming, body-composition, and intimate-space standards. Transgender recruits were barred from shipping to training, Delayed Entry Program applicants disqualified, and West Point offers rescinded; ROTC cadets kept education benefits without recoupment.