Transgender service members who have given 15 to 18 years of their lives to the U.S. Air Force are now being told: you get nothing.

In a shocking reversal, the Air Force has denied early retirement to all transgender airmen with 15–18 years of service, forcing them out under a Trump administration policy aimed at removing transgender individuals from military service altogether.

These are not hypothetical cases — some of these service members had already been approved for early retirement. Now, those approvals have been rescinded. They’ll leave with a lump-sum payment instead of the full retirement benefits they were working toward — a loss that will cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetimes.

The message is clear: It doesn’t matter how long you served, how well you performed, or what you sacrificed. If you’re transgender, your service is suddenly worth less.

We, the undersigned, call on Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, the Department of Defense, and members of Congress to:

• Reverse this discriminatory denial of early retirement benefits
• Restore all previously approved TERA (Temporary Early Retirement Authority) requests
• Ensure that no service member is targeted or penalized for their gender identity
   

These Americans volunteered. They trained, deployed, and served with honor. Some were just years away from retirement. Now, they’re being pushed out early — with nothing close to what they earned.

This isn’t policy. This is punishment.

If we truly value our veterans, we must prove it — not just with words, but with benefits, dignity, and the retirement they’ve earned.