Retired Army veteran on CNN: “Replacing transgender troops would cost billions and create an unnecessary talent gap”
Leila Ireland: “Transgender Americans like myself and my husband have been serving openly for the last ten years, almost the last ten years, and they’ve been serving with courage, honor, and effectiveness”
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From the January 27, 2025, edition of CNN's CNN News Central
BRIANNA KEILAR (HOST): Let's talk about this now with Leila Ireland. She is a retired Army veteran who served as a human intelligence collector and a combat medic. And she's a member of Sparta Pride, which is a community of transgender military service members and veterans like herself. Leila, thanks so much for being with us. What is your reaction to this?
LEILA IRELAND (ARMY VETERAN): Hi, Brianna, thank you so much for having me. You know, I think it's really important to highlight that transgender service members, thousands of us individuals, are currently serving in the military, many in specialized positions requiring years of training and expertise. Replacing them would result in significant operational gaps, weakening the effectiveness of our armed forces and our national security. So it's really interesting to hear our new secretary of defense say that we're not capable or worthy of that service.
KEILAR: And I do want to note, someone like yourself where so much, so many resources were invested in your training, or your husband who is trans and an active duty service member. The first Trump military trans ban actually had a lot of exceptions, your husband was still able to serve. I wonder what you're looking for in the fine print on this one to see how it could affect him, how it could affect others.
IRELAND: You know, currently we don't know what that looks like, right? And I think what we want is to be able to still have that opportunity to serve. But again, transgender Americans like myself and my husband have been serving openly for the last ten years, almost the last ten years, and they've been serving with courage, honor and effectiveness. So I think that's something that we need to look at, or that the new leadership needs to look at, and incorporate that if we're looking at the security of our nation and service to keeping our people safe.
KEILAR: And the White House does, I think you kind of in a way referenced it, they're citing a fact sheet that says it can take several months for someone to complete treatments after transition surgery, and that during this time they're not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements, they need ongoing medical care. What do you say to that?
IRELAND: You know, transgender service members are fully deployable even during transition. And these service members are currently deployed around the world, including in some of the most austere environments where you can find Americans serving. Trans people are fully capable and fully deployable throughout the transition. For those who do get the surgery, it's not different from knee or shoulder surgery commonly undergone by other service members during downtime. So after transition, transgender service members are capable, effective, and lethal, like every qualified service member. We talk about being warfighters. You know, we're commanders, we're drill sergeants, pilots, submariners, special forces, doctors, and Marines. There are several thousands of us that are members of Sparta, an organization that helps connect our trans service members, and we have a plethora, a wide range of service to look at and consider.
KEILAR: And as you mentioned, there are thousands of trans service members. There's actually estimated to be 14,000 in the military as of 2018. We should mention not all of them transition while in the military, but many of them do, as you and your husband did. You both served honorably in combat zones repeatedly. Can you tell us a little bit about how service members navigate that transition while they're serving, because you and your husband had very, very different experiences?
IRELAND: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think what it boils down to is the support of great command and leadership. And when you are able to provide a space where we value and we show that value of our members of the team, it allows them to really bring their full selves to the fight. And by doing, by doing away with that, we violate our integrity on a daily basis because we can't bring our full selves to the fight. So if you're not having service members serving their authenticity and serving and bringing their full selves to the fight, we are not as effective as we would like to be.
KEILAR: And when you talk about losing that expertise of this many service members, especially at a time where we hear time and again, the military is trying its best to recruit people, I mean, what are your concerns about what that could mean, just to lose people potentially very quickly from service?
IRELAND: Yeah, you know, I think replacing transgender troops would cost billions and create an unnecessary talent gap. With 73% of transgender personnel being senior enlisted leaders with extensive experience, immediately replacing that personnel or these personnel will cost billions and require up to 20 years to regain that experience. So they are deployed today in units and are combat ready now, so we need to make sure that we're valuing their contribution, their dedication, and their livelihoods, and being brought to the front line.
KEILAR: What's the conversation like right now in the community? What are the worries as we're awaiting? What is in this EO?
IRELAND: Yeah, you know, I think that's a fair question to ask right now. What we're ensuring our service members know now, is that until something solidified drops and says they no longer can serve, what they're going to continue to do is lace up their boots, put their uniforms on, and continue to do the job that they were trained and entrusted to do. Yes, there are going to be worries in our community, but as a community, we're going to keep pushing forward.
KEILAR: Leila Ireland, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for your service, and thank you so much.