--- ---  # Retired Military Leaders Sign Letter Opposing Transgender Troop Ban by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Aug 1, 2017 5:12 PM UTC  President Donald Trump arrives in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on July 26, 2017. President Donald Trump arrives in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on July 26, 2017.Carolyn Kaster—AP by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Aug 1, 2017 5:12 PM UTC More than 50 retired generals and admirals from every branch of the U.S. military penned a letter Tuesday condemning President Trump’s upcoming [ban of transgender troops](http://time.com/4874394/trump-transgender-military-ban-what-to-know/). The 56 officers from the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard argued that implementing the President’s ban would reduce the readiness of the military, according to the letter sent to the Palm Center obtained by TIME. “This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy,” the officers said in the letter. “As a result, the proposed ban would degrade readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. “Patriotic transgender Americans who are serving—and who want to serve—must not be dismissed, deprived of medically necessary health care, or forced to compromise their integrity or hide their identity,” the letter added. Trump [announced his plan](http://time.com/4875434/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban-how-it-works/) to bar transgender troops from the military in a series of tweets last week. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he said in the tweets. A study by independent military research firm RAND Corporation found that [medical services for transgender soldiers](http://time.com/4877230/trump-transgender-military-ban-myths/) would amount to, at most, $8.4 million a year — an increase of 0.13% and just 0.005–0.017% of the Defense Department’s total health care budget. Transgender Military Ban: Generals, Admirals Condemn Trump ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4882553/transgender-military-ban-generals-admirals-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4882553/transgender-military-ban-generals-admirals-letter/"},"headline":"Retired Military Leaders Sign Letter Opposing Transgender Troop Ban","datePublished":"2017-08-01T17:12:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:49:19.209Z","description":"The 56 officers from the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard argued against implementing it","url":"https://time.com/4882553/transgender-military-ban-generals-admirals-letter/","keywords":["Military","White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3fe1debb48a03d0/6988d7f2fb4eac43d489324f/trump-jr-russia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3fe1debb48a03d0/6988d7f2fb4eac43d489324f/trump-jr-russia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Carolyn Kaster—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4882553/transgender-military-ban-generals-admirals-letter/","name":"Retired Military Leaders Sign Letter Opposing Transgender Troop Ban"}}]}] ```