Master Sgt. Amiah Sale was not allowed inside the hearing room on the sprawling U.S. military base in South Korea where three officers met to decide whether to end her 19-year Army career.

Instead, she was sent down the hallway, out of uniform, to watch on a grainy feed. Sale caught some of the audio, but never saw the separation board members’ faces that afternoon, on March 24. It was impossible to tell which way they were leaning. They had roughly 180 pages worth of evidence that her attorneys had submitted — awards, evaluations and two dozen or so character references from Sale’s combat tour in Iraq, a deployment to Poland and two tours in South Korea.

“They said none of that really matters,” she told MS NOW, “and they said that in about 20 minutes over lunch.” 

While the officers at Camp Humphreys deliberated her fate, Sale remained barred from the room. She had prepared herself for either outcome, but it didn’t help. 

“Nothing that I could do prepared me for the sense of loss,” the combat veteran said. 

In less than a half hour, Sale, 39, said the board dismissed her. She was given no information about how or why the officers reached their conclusion.

Sale is among more than 4,000 service members targeted by the Trump administration’s assault on transgender rights. Like others’, her military career is in limbo. 

She hasn’t worn a uniform since July 2025. But because of ongoing court cases challenging President Donald Trump’s ban on trans service members, the military hasn’t given Sale a firm separation date while extending her assignment two months at a time without clarification.

“No one from my command, no one from the Army, no one from the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, no one has explained this to me except for my attorney,” she said. 

Sale’s spouse and two sons are stateside, and with her status up in the air, she’s been unable to go home. She hasn’t seen them in 18 months, missing two anniversaries, both boys’ birthdays, band concerts and watching them grow in the everyday moments of child rearing. Sale calls herself the internet parent.

“They’re living through this lens of ‘when is mom coming home,’” she said. “And realistically, we don’t know.”

Asked for comment on this story, a Pentagon spokesperson said the department “does not comment on ongoing litigation” and referred MS NOW to the Department of Justice, which also declined comment and referred questions to the Pentagon.

Two attorneys who represent trans service members say the military’s administrative separation boards work in ways that have become increasingly secretive.

“It is a lot easier to give somebody an unfair shake if you don’t have to look at them,” said Priya Rashid, an Army Reserve lawyer who has represented dozens of transgender troops before separation boards over the past six years.

She said respondents are now being shut out to an alarming degree. Rashid has defended people accused of violent crimes against children — and yet “they were allowed at their own board.”

Trans service members were first allowed to serve openly in 2016. Trump banned them in July 2017. Lower courts blocked his ban until the Supreme Court reinstated the anti-transgender policy in January 2019. Joe Biden repealed the ban days after taking office in 2021. And when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he put trans service members on notice with an executive order titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then gave troops 30 days to leave voluntarily — 60 days for National Guard and Reserve — or face forced separation. Of the 4,240 troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria, about a quarter of them took the buyout: a one-time separation payment — not a pension, since military retirement benefits require 20 years of service. 

Those remaining were subject to having their medical records scrutinized by Pentagon officials for evidence of a diagnosis or symptoms of transgender treatment, such as gender-affirming hormone therapy.

Under the Pentagon’s new medical standards, issued in February, “treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition” is considered a disqualifying medical condition.

Ironically, Sale had followed orders when she sought an official diagnosis before beginning hormone therapy in December 2023 and completing her transition in August 2024.

Nothing the military shared with her turned on whether she could do the job. 

“I am just as capable as any other service member, whether they’re trans, whether they’re cis,” she said.

According to Michael Haley, an attorney for the advocacy group GLAD Law, the military’s litmus test boils down to one simple issue. “The question has always been: Can you continue to serve?” he said.

Nicolas Talbott, 32, the lead plaintiff in a case challenging Trump’s transgender military service ban, is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve who was commissioned about two weeks before the ban took effect. He has not been allowed to attend the Basic Officer Leadership Course requirements for military police duties. 

“My bags are packed to toss in the truck and go to Missouri tomorrow if I got that phone call,” he said. But he knows he could instead get a call at any time sending him before an administrative separation board.

Talbott and others whose military careers are uncertain now await potential Supreme Court action this fall. The Trump administration asked the court on Aug. 28 to allow the Pentagon to fully enforce its ban. The petition centers on a June ruling against the policy by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. If the justices accept the case, oral arguments could happen as soon as October, when the term begins.

Gordon Herrero, 36, an Army captain who has served 10 years on active duty, arrived at West Point last year to teach math. While his cohort went on to complete classroom certification, Herrero was placed on administrative leave.

“I spent all of this time preparing for this job, and I’m fully trained, but now cannot do it,” he said.

Herrero is being processed for involuntary separation but has not received a date for his hearing. 

This October will mark Sale’s 20th year of service in the Army, making her eligible for a pension and other benefits. Termination would mean getting none of that.

Asked what she would say to Hegseth, Sale did not mention the pension.

“I want to be a soldier. I am a soldier,” she said. “I’ve only ever wanted to serve.”

The post How Hegseth’s Pentagon is secretly purging transgender service members appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.