Pete Hegseth is not a fan of diversity in the military. And don't just take my word for it, the defense secretary said as much during a speech at the Pentagon back in February.

I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is our diversity is our strength.

'The efforts by the Trump administration to root out so-called wokeness in the federal government has hit DOD especially hard. From online content to books at the military academies, Hegseth has been hell-bent on striking down DEI initiatives. And that extends to the very Americans who are serving in the armed forces.

Breaking tonight, the Supreme Court says that the Trump administration can immediately start banning transgender troops from serving in the military. Under the new ban, service members with the current diagnosis, history of or exhibiting symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service.

These separations are happening at a very fraught time. Thousands of US troops in the Middle East are on edge after Israel's massive strike on Iran. Back home, federal troops have been deployed to Los Angeles to deal with protests. There was a hugely expensive and controversial military parade in Washington, DC. And on top of all of that, it's pride month. So how are these trance troops dealing with being targeted? Today, one Navy sailor tells us how the ban has upended his life and why it feels like don't ask, don't tell all over again. From CNN, this is One Thing. I'm David Rind.

So I was going to college in Connecticut at the University of Bridgeport. And I was doing, okay, I was young and I was partying a lot, like a normal college kid. Like I was just being a normal...

Who among us.

Yeah, I just being the normal college kids.

This is Benjamin Kibler.

But my dad ended up passing away. Was a pretty defining moment for me. I realized that I don't think I just wanna party. Like he wouldn't be proud of what I was doing. I'm just partying. I'm not really taking my studies seriously. And so I joined the Navy. It gave me a pathway to basically go back to school and finish my degree. And it allowed me to kind of connect with this weird part of myself that really wanted to do something that was gonna make my dad proud. So when I first got there, I just had this deep motivation that was more than just like a surface level motivation to do well and to succeed. And so I was willing to kind of overlook a lot of the things that other people considered like grunt work or whatever. I just was like, you want me to go sweep? Okay, that's very easy. I can do that.

You were willing to do the dirty work.

A hundred percent, yeah, and so that's what I did. And I worked hard and when I got done doing something I just continually asked like, hey, what's next, what next? And I made chief in six and a half years and then I made senior chief in 10 years, which is not really commonplace. That's pretty quick.

'Kibler has been in the Navy for 13 years altogether. He's currently based in San Diego. He spoke to me in his personal capacity and made it clear his views don't reflect those of the Navy or the Department of Defense. That's because he is one of the thousands of transgender and non-binary service members who are in the process of essentially being kicked out of the military. A February memo said that any personnel with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria would be discharged. Gender dysphoria, by the way, refers to the psychological distress an individual feels when their gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.

So I came out as transgender in 2021. I've known that I was trans since I was a kid. So I was serving as a transgender service member before it was allowed, but I wasn't allowed to express that. Um, and I wasn't t ready personally to express that, but that doesn't mean that I wasn t a transgender sailor. You know what I mean?

So you weren't holding it in because it was against the rules, it was just kind of your personal, you just weren't ready.

Yeah, I just wasn't ready. I lived my life as an out and proud lesbian for a lot of years, many years. And that was a hard thing to admit to yourself and to admit your family. I was raised in the South, in like a very Christian environment. And so being a lesbian was like not okay, but it was more okay than being trans. Like that's definitely not okay. And so for me, it took me a lot of like personal work. And soul searching and educating myself in order to become comfortable with admitting that to myself and starting to work through the shame of that because there is a lot of shame associated with it that I think that you just have to work though.

Well, so when you came out in 2021, what was the reaction amongst the people that you served with and were working with every day?

Um, nobody cared. Like the majority of people that I knew were not surprised, they weren't surprised at all. Even my mother was like, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. You know, my sister is also trans. And, uh, when my sister came out as trans, my mom was like blown away. She was like flabby ass and she's like, I never would have thought that. But when I came out, it was like. Oh yeah. Yeah, we knew, we know that. Um, and so. Especially in the Navy, I have had nothing but support. I really haven't experienced any kind of bigotry or hate or volatility or anything like that. Obviously, that's not the case for everybody, but in my experience, people have been supportive. And honestly, people don't care. If I show up and I do my job, that's really the only thing anybody cares about. Are you gonna do your job? And are you gonna have my back When I need you to have my back If the answer to both of those is yes, people, they don't care.

Not long after President Trump took office, Kibler was offered a big promotion, reserved for some of the Navy's most qualified sailors. As part of his ship's deployment, he and his wife would relocate from California to Japan.

So I was Selected for a limited duty officer program and offered a commission because of my selection to that program on February 24th, I think it was. So February 24, I'm elated. I'm talking to my wife. We talked about the future. You start dreaming and talking about, hey, we can do this. What about this? Which is all really exciting.

Turning now to a new Pentagon policy that targets transgender service members.

And then two days later, so that was on a Monday, that Wednesday, the 26th is when the first DOD memo dropped.

The memo that was issued yesterday in a Wednesday court filing is very clear here, transgender service members are, with very few exceptions, perhaps only one, out of the military.

And I didn't get to enjoy my selection or the thought of promotion because I think as a defense mechanism like immediately as that happened I had to push it back to like the back of my mind because I think it hurt too much for me to let it come all the way forward.

And further it says that unscheduled, scheduled, or planned procedures related to gender dysphoria or related to transgender service members are effectively canceled.

What it means in essence is you were selected for this prestigious program, and then just a few days later you were told not only can you not have that, you have to leave the military altogether.

Yes, yeah, and there's thousands of stories like this. There's people that are still getting promoted and they're not gonna be able to earn it. And what my specific story and my specific promotion shows is that this ban harms readiness, right? It doesn't help readiness because how are you taking a subject matter expert, my ship's going into theater, right, overseas, and you're taking me off that ship. If war fighting is really what you're what your aim is, how are you taking me off of that ship, leaving me behind when I've proven, right? Literally within the same week that I'm capable and not just capable, but like almost necessary. All of this should not be about my identity. My identity has nothing to do with the mission.

Yeah, I mean, that's what I wanted to ask, because the argument, like you alluded to, from the Trump administration is that those diagnosed with gender dysphoria conflict with the standards of integrity and their service negatively impacts the military's lethality, readiness, and cohesion. That's been the stated rationale here. Right. What is your response to that argument, that trans members just make the military less strong?

It's wrong. That's not true. The ban itself is harming readiness. A perfect example is there's a person on my ship, right? He's like an HR guy. They call him PSS, he's Personnel Specialist. But amidst a home port shift, he is dealing with the pay, the leave, all of the administrative paperwork for a thousand people on that ship and their families, right. So if we just assume that everybody on the ship is married with no kids, that's 2,000 people that you have to worry about all of their pay and household goods, all of that, moving from the United States to Japan. That's a lot of administrative burden to begin with. Adding in on top of that now, he has to help me figure out my pay and my situation. That's an administrative burden. That's not helping anybody. It's just creating more work.

So you're saying just kicking out someone like yourself, it also impacts a bunch of other folks who are responsible for logistics and payments. 100%, 100%. And those are things, it could be time spent doing something else.

100% so I don't understand how that is helpful to the mission.

We'll be right back.

Well, so Friday the 6th was the last day that active duty transgender service members could volunteer to separate from the service under this broader policy. Otherwise, they would be involuntarily separated and face lower payouts, may have to return bonuses that they had received. So you faced that choice, right? What did you decide?

Uh, I decided to voluntarily separate. I want to also emphasize that none of this is a choice. Like I chose to voluntarily separated because that was the best option given to me, um, that protected my family and allowed for us a smooth transition with the most benefit for us in voluntary route to like, there's no information on what that looks like. There's nothing that exists that says like, this is how you're going to be processed out. And I think about trans people that are serving that were like me before I came out, that know that they're trans, but haven't come out yet. And so they don't fit into these boxes, but you're creating an environment where these people don't feel safe at their workplace. I think I saw that commanders, they can basically say, this person came to me, They're part of my... Chain of command and they came to me and they told me that they are transgender and now I have to process them out. It's Don't Ask Don't Tell 2.0.

So here's a little context for what Kibler is talking about here. According to an army memo first reported by CBS and later obtained by CNN revealed that a soldier's private conversation with a commander about gender dysphoria could trigger a medical review. Other criteria like open or overt conduct on social media or prior requests for grooming exemptions could be used to identify soldiers for potential dismissal. As far as how many service members this could impact. A senior defense official said by early May about a quarter of the 4,240 personnel identified as having gender dysphoria as of December 2024 had come forward to voluntarily separate. But it's unclear exactly how many service members will eventually be dismissed. And then there's the question of whether this is even legal. Two judges have already issued nationwide injunctions blocking the government from enforcing the ban. But the Supreme Court has allowed it to go into effect while lower courts hash things out.

No soldier ever volunteered for the Army to be lectured about transgender diversity or inclusion. You don't want to hear that. Transgender for everybody. We don't do that.

It's worth noting this is all happening amid those huge celebrations for the Army's 250th birthday. President Trump gave a very political speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina the other day where he also talked about the rich history of the Army and the armed forces overall.

After 250 years, we still proudly declare that we are free because you are strong. You are so strong. We're safe because you're brave, and America's flag will never fall because America's Army will never, ever fail. Never going to fail.

Do you feel like a valued part of that history of the military as you kind of look back on things?

Um, no, the short answer is no. I think that at one time I would have said absolutely yes. You know, I think 2024, any time before this year, I would've said yes, absolutely. Now more so and more so, I feel that the veteran community and the LGBTQ plus community are separate and I relate more to LGBTQ plus veterans than I do regular veterans, because I don't think that a regular veteran can understand what it feels like to be targeted the way transgender people are being targeted right now and the way gay and lesbian people were targeted during the years of Don't Ask Don't Tell. That's sad for me to say that, but I mean, that's truly how I feel. I definitely a separation between the two.

Yeah. I mean, that's a big statement for, you know, if you just look at what the administration is saying that they want to be a cohesive kind of fighting force, but you're saying that this has driven a schism between you and folks you've served with in the past.

Yeah, 100%. And I don't think it's their fault. You know, I mean, I don t think it s like the service members fault. I just think that when you do this to a group of people, like it's naturally going to make that group of p eople more cohesive and understand each other on a level that other people just can't understand. And I do think that this is traumatizing. This is causing a lot of issues for a lot of people. But for me personally, before this year, I would have said The Navy was my home. The longest I had ever lived in one single place before I joined the Navy was four years. My first ship, I was stationed on my first ship for seven and a half years. So in a lot of ways, that was my home. I lived there, I ate there, and I made some of my best friends in the entire world on that ship. I grew exponentially on that ship, and it molded me and it shaped me in ways that I don't know if I fully appreciate. Or I've had the time to fully appreciate yet. So, there is a sense of me being transgender is a part of my identity, right? It's a facet of a greater whole. And I think part of that identity is also being a sailor, being a chief, a senior chief, like that's a separate identity. And working through losing all of that kind of dramatically and not for any reason that is my fault, like I didn't do anything wrong. In actuality, I excel and I outperform and then to be penalized for something so blatantly animus and having nothing to do with my performance is discouraging.

Well Ben, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me, I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much again. I really appreciate it.

One Thing is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paolo Ortiz and me, David Rind. Our senior producers are Felicia Patinkin and Faiz Jamil. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director and Steve Lickteig i is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Alex Manassari, Mark Duffy, Robert Mathers, John Deonora, Leni Steinhart, Jamus Andrest, Nicole Pesaru and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Elizabeth Wolfe and Wendy Brundage. We'll be back on Wednesday. I'll talk to you then.