A handful of House Republicans are working to make President Trump’s executive order to bar transgender troops from serving openly in the military permanent, introducing legislation to give the directive the full force of law. 

The Readiness Over Wokeness Act, introduced Wednesday by Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), deems any service member with a current diagnosis, history or symptoms of gender dysphoria unfit for military service. It disqualifies individuals who have received gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy or surgery “as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition.” 

“It’s time to rein in the gender insanity that occurred under the Biden Administration and return our military to their core mission: defending the United States and its interests,” Moore wrote in a post on the social platform X announcing the bill, which has five Republican co-sponsors. 

He accused former President Biden of allowing transgender people to serve “to appease the leftist activists” and said their participation threatens the military’s strength and readiness. 

The Alabama lawmaker, a former member of the state National Guard, told Fox News on Wednesday that his office has been in contact with the White House on the measure. 

Moore’s remarks and the bill’s language echo Trump’s order, which states that, “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” 

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” reads the order, which Trump signed during his first week back in office. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has similarly claimed that allowing transgender Americans to serve in the military threatens its effectiveness and undermines unit cohesion, an argument that has long been used to keep marginalized groups from serving. 

“The Department must ensure it is building ‘One Force’ without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence. Efforts to split our troops along the lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable,” Hegseth wrote in a February memo to senior leadership at the Pentagon. 

A 2016 RAND Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department found that allowing trans people to serve had no negative impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness. 

Trump barred transgender troops from serving during his first term but made an exception for some who had already started to transition, in line with rules put in place during former President Obama’s administration. The new policy makes no such exception. 

Dozens of transgender service members are challenging Trump’s latest ban in court, arguing it discriminates against trans people and claims without evidence that they are unfit to serve. 

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said the administration’s policy is “soaked in animus” in an order that blocked it from taking effect nationwide. An appeals court temporarily halted her order as it weighs whether to grant a longer pause. 

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration can enforce its ban on trans military service, overruling orders from Reyes and another federal judge. 

The court’s three liberal justices publicly dissented. 

In a memo dated May 8, two days after the Supreme Court’s order, Hegseth said transgender active-duty service members will have until June 6 to self-separate or be forced out. Those in the National Guard and Reserve have until July 7 to leave voluntarily, he said. 

The move will affect roughly 1,000 service members who openly identify as transgender, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement this month.