The Pentagon initially invited transgender service members with 15–18 years' service to apply for Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA), a program offering benefits including housing, health insurance, and pensions. Officials held a press briefing promising significant voluntary separation pay and dignity for those forced out after the Supreme Court upheld the ban on transgender military service. The Air Force later disapproved all TERA exception-to-policy requests, with an August 4 memo from acting assistant secretary Brian Scarlett rescinding previously issued retirement orders. Approximately 30 transgender Air Force members had approved retirements revoked, effectively denying them nearly two decades of earned retirement pay and benefits.
Only months ago, in May, after the Supreme Court's partisan supermajority gave its approval to Donald Trump's ban on transgender military service, a Defense Department memo invited trans people with 15 to 18 years of military service to apply for its Temporary Early Retirement Authority program. TERA, as it's called, was created in 1993 for periods of military drawdown; the program gives those with between 15 and 20 years of service deserved benefits such as on-base housing, health insurance, and, of course, pension payments.
Officials even held a special press briefing, during which they vaguely acknowledged the hardship awaiting those being forced out, hewing as close to empathy as this administration seems able to muster. "They will be afforded a very significant, voluntary separation pay," one senior Defense spokesperson told reporters, "giving them the time they need to transition to civilian life. This policy will treat anyone impacted by it with dignity and respect."
Perhaps giving, and then inexplicably revoking, approval for early retirement, as the Pentagon did to roughly 30 trans Air Force members, according to The Advocate. "After careful consideration of the individual applications, I am disapproving all Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) exception to policy requests," Brian Scarlett, the Air Force's newly announced acting assistant secretary for Manpower and Reserve, wrote in an August 4 memo.
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