The highest-ranking transgender officer in the Department of Defense said that the military’s transgender separation policy is going to leave gaps in units as skilled service members are removed from the armed forces.
U.S. Space Force Col. Bree Fram said that as of June 7, she is on administrative leave from the service, pending separation, as a result of the Pentagon’s ban on transgender troops.
She told Task & Purpose Monday that she is at the end of her more than two-decade career in the armed forces. She spoke to Task & Purpose in her personal capacity, not in reflection of Pentagon policy.
Fram, an astronautical engineer who previously served in the Air Force before moving to Space Force in 2021, was serving as director of requirements and integration for Space Force. In posts on social media, she said that her last official act was to pin medals on three people who served under her.
The Department of Defense officials say they believe there are approximately 4,200 service members with gender dysphoria in the ranks, and that as of May 15, 1,000 had come forward to begin a so-called “voluntary” separation process. Others who may later be identified and “involuntarily” separated could receive smaller compensation packages, officials say.
“People are on pins and needles. We’re asking each other ‘what do you know? What do we all know?’ It’s been really difficult,” she told Task & Purpose on Monday. “I want to stress that although this is labeled voluntarily, neither the ‘voluntary’ or ‘involuntary’ process is a choice, or what anyone wanted or would have done.”
Fram joined the military after Sept. 11, 2001, and came out as transgender in 2016, the same day that the Department of Defense lifted its ban on transgender service. She spent nearly 20 years in the Air Force, then moved to the Space Force in 2021.
Transgender service members, Fram said, “have been operating in a vacuum,” and are looking for more information from military leadership. The military’s involuntary separation process for transgender troops, which started on June 7, remains vague on details.
Members in the reserves have until July 7 to choose to go through the voluntary separation process. The Air Force and Navy have said that troops with certain years of service are eligible for early retirement in this process.
Dispute over negative separation codes
A technical but life-altering issue for troops, said Fram, is the “separation code” under which they will leave the service.
Most troops leaving the military are granted an “honorable discharge,” a separation code that indicates they left in good standing with no serious discipline issues or professional failures.
Though the Pentagon has, at times, said that transgender troops with clean records would receive honorable discharges, but Fram said that’s no longer clear.
A May 15 memo from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness said transgender enlisted personnel would be separated under the JFF separation code, meaning it was done by secretarial authority. Officers would be given a JDK code, which indicates on their service record that “their continued service is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security” — a black mark for troops in the job market, as it could prevent them from getting or maintaining security clearances that are required for certain jobs.
Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and JAG, told Task & Purpose that the JDK separation code is usually reserved for matters such as mishandling classified information.
Fram said that the main concern for them has been uncertainty over what is next. “Anyone navigating a transition out of the military is put in a challenging position, but they have this extra burden of being labeled as dishonorable or liars,” she said.
Fram also noted that the separations will cause disruptions for ongoing operations as troops who are qualified for specific roles are “suddenly gone.”
Fram’s work focused on researching what capabilities and “fight critical” systems the Space Force will need to field in the next decade. It’s specialized work drawing on her years of experience, which others in Space Force don’t have, she said. Fram noted that units that have open transgender personnel have tried to do some planning to fill gaps left by separation, but replacing thousands of people across the military “is not something that happens tomorrow.”
“The impact of this is not just on today. It stretches far into the future,” she said.
A few days before her final acts in her role, at a meeting with fellow officers, her colleagues were stunned to learned she was leaving the service and all shook her hand as the event broke up.
“We served with our friends, our colleagues, with people who respected us, and now that’s just missing,” she said.
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