The US Department of Defense will review and dispose of materials related to gender ideology from Military Educational Institution library collections.

This decision comes as part of a political and social ideology steering US government decision-making. In the days after his inauguration, US President Donald Trump set the tone for this agenda by dismantling DEI programmes across the federal government.

Now, educational materials the government perceives as “promoting divisive concepts and [relates to] gender ideology” will be incompatible with defence objectives, from increasing lethality to faster procurement of weapon systems.

A temporary Academic Libraries Committee comprised of leaders, educators, and library professionals drawn from across the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Military Departments will inform the identification, sequestration, review, and decision concerning the disposition of material.

Committe members will recommend criteria and procedures consistent with the Department’s mission to inform that review no later than June 2025.

This memo, issued on 9 May 2025, comes one day after the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the removal of people from the armed forces whose gender does not align with their sex at birth.

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“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria may elect to separate voluntarily” before 6 June, the memo read, after which time Department will initiate “involuntary separation.”

There is no precise figure for the number of people within this bracket, yet it has been widely reported that up to 1,000 personnel may be effected by the policy change.

Hegseth cited a recent Supreme Court ruling enabling the policy. In contrast, the ban on transgender people serving in the military had been in force under Trump in his first term, which was subsequently overturned in 2021 by the previous president, Joe Biden.

“America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive,” stated a White House news release under Biden, “the military is no exception.”

Meanwhile, in a video posted on the social media platform X, Hegseth reiterated that the ban “is what the American people voted for, and we are going to continue to relentlessly pursue it”.

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