Trans Troops Given A Black Mark Discharge Code Under Military Ban

“This is the kind of code that they gave to homosexuals and communists in the '50s.”

2017.07.29 Stop Transgender Military Ban, Washington, DC - Wikimedia Commons

This Saturday, President Donald Trump’s military parade will take the streets of Washington, D.C., featuring thousands upon thousands of troops and nearly a hundred tanks, fighter planes and military vehicles. The parade is also, conveniently, on Trump’s birthday. In a post on Truth Social, he promised an “unforgettable celebration—one like you’ve never seen before.”

But if it walks like a goose, and talks like a dictator, it is not all that novel or new. It’s the same playbook used by authoritarians for centuries: put on show for the people. Where World Pride was held mere days ago is now the site of Trump’s All-American armed spectacle to the tune of $45 million in taxpayer dollars. The streets of rainbow glitter have been replaced with the treadmarks of tanks.

It is a darkly fitting metaphor for transgender members of the military, who, as of last week, have begun being “involuntarily separated” from their jobs on account of their gender identity, as per Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s memo implementing Trump’s military ban.

Some trans service members, such as Alex of the National Guard—a pseudonym to protect them from further retaliation—have chosen to stay and fight the ban, which is currently being litigated.

While some were eligible for “separation pay” if they left “voluntarily,” this doesn’t apply across the board. In cases like Alex’s, there are significant financial barriers to leaving the armed services. And the kicker is that trans service members under the Trump Administration are being branded with a scarlet letter, or three: “JDK.”

It stands for “Juliet Delta Kilo,” a discharge code labelling someone a liability to national security. The designation shows up on job applications and government forms; it impacts a person’s ability to get jobs with a security clearance or even immigrate, as Alex’s spouse and children are doing, while Alex stays behind.

“This is the kind of code that they gave to homosexuals and communists in the '50s,” Alex said. “This is what you would give to people who have mishandled classified material or have made statements that make the government say, ‘We cannot trust this person to be anywhere near anything of value.’”

More recently, it’s been applied to queer people under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, as per CBS.

But as Alex knows all too well, this battlefield is not only for the military. “When you say that [trans] people are not worthy of being in the military, even if they can do the job, that makes them ‘less’ in the eyes of the law,” Alex said. “And when we are ‘less’ in the eyes of the law, they can do anything they want to us.”

In a prior ruling on the matter, district court Judge Ana Reyes sounded the alarm about the animus and bias that the trans military ban carries with it. “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” she wrote in a March opinion. “High-ranking military leaders [...] have submitted sworn declarations in which they testify, from personal experience, that transgender persons serving openly has improved, not decreased, military preparedness.”

The conservative bloc of the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s order to pause the trans ban as the legal situation unfolds. The move may indicate the Justices’ predisposition on trans issues ahead of the United States v. Skrmetti opinion. That case could determine the constitutionality of gender-affirming care bans for trans people nationwide, a ruling that is expected any day now.

The weaponization of the “JDK” code is merely the latest in Trump’s attempts to disenfranchise trans people from all public life. “This was plunging the knife and twisting it to ensure that trans people would have no role in government ever again,” Alex said. “It’s to punish us for having the temerity to think that we belong.”

So, this Pride Month, as companies like Coca-Cola and Walmart trade in their rainbow parade floats for a coveted spot sponsoring Trump’s war procession, trans Americans are waiting with baited breath to see how the battle on the military front plays out. It could have dire implications for us all.

Meanwhile, Trump is unlawfully siccing National Guardsmen and Marines onto the Los Angeles uprisings against ICE. He is reportedly trying to do the same in cities across the country—namely strongholds in “blue” areas, who have expressly told Trump they don’t need or want combatants in their streets. Military experts warn that this is dangerous for civilians and service members alike. However, that doesn’t seem to matter to Trump.