us-air-force-to-deny-retirement-pay-to-trans-personnel

The United States Air Force will no longer provide the early retirement option to all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years and will instead separate them without retirement benefits.

 

Transgender service members will now have to decide whether to accept the lump-sum separation payment given to junior troops or to be discharged from the military as a result of the decision.

 

An Air Force spokesperson stated that “although service members with 15 to 18 years of honourable service were permitted to apply for an exception to policy, none of the exceptions to policy were approved.”

 

About a dozen service members had been “prematurely notified” that they would be able to retire before that decision was reversed, according to the spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Air Force policy.

 

All transgender members of the Air Force are being separated from the service under the Trump administration's policies.