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Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 24, 2025
Equal and Uniform Treatment in the Military Act or the EQUITY Act
This bill prohibits discrimination within the Department of Defense (DOD) against individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
A qualification established or applied related to eligibility for service in any of the Armed Forces must only consider (1) the ability of an individual to meet the general occupational standards for service, and (2) the particular military occupational specialty.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, declaring that the United States recognizes two sexes (male and female) and these sexes are not changeable.
On January 27, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness, expressing that the policy for troop readiness is inconsistent with gender dysphoria or the use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s biological sex. Further, the order directs DOD to update specific guidance documents related to medical standards for military service to reflect the purpose and policy of the order.
People & committees
Rep. Strickland, Marilyn [D-WA-10] · D–WA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 13, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-24 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Equal and Uniform Treatment in the Military Act would prohibit discrimination within the Department of Defense based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Military service eligibility qualifications would have to consider only a person’s ability to meet general military occupational standards and the requirements of the particular military specialty. These are proposed changes, not evidence of enacted law.
This Act may be cited as the Equal and Uniform Treatment in the Military Act or the EQUITY Act.
(1) Subject to paragraph (2), discrimination within the Department of Defense against an individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation, is prohibited. (2) A qualification established or applied regarding eligibility for service in an armed force shall take into account only the ability of an individual to meet— (A) general occupational standards for military service; and (B) the particular military occupational specialty.
Section 2 presents Congress’s proposed findings about military inclusion and states a policy goal: service members should be able to serve, advance, and be evaluated only on individual merit, fitness, capability, and performance, without discrimination. This is a statement of the bill’s position, not proof of its effects.
Congress finds the following: (1) Women, Black, Native American, and LGBTQIA+ Americans have served in the Armed Forces since the Revolutionary War.
(12) It should be the policy of the United States that every member of the Armed Forces has the right to serve, advance, and be evaluated based on only individual merit, fitness, capability, and performance, in an environment free of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Section 3 would add a new section 975 to title 10 of the United States Code. It would prohibit discrimination against individuals within the Department of Defense on the listed grounds, subject to the rule governing qualifications for military service.
Chapter 49 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 974 the following new section: 975. Prohibition on discrimination (a) Prohibition (1) Subject to paragraph (2), discrimination within the Department of Defense against an individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation, is prohibited.
Qualifications for military service would have to focus only on whether the individual can meet both general military occupational standards and the requirements of the particular military occupational specialty—the specific military job.
(2) A qualification established or applied regarding eligibility for service in an armed force shall take into account only the ability of an individual to meet— (A) general occupational standards for military service; and (B) the particular military occupational specialty.
The proposed protection for gender identity would cover a person’s gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, and other gender-related characteristics, regardless of their designated sex at birth.
(1) The term gender identity means the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.
The proposed definition of sex would include sex stereotypes; pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions; and sex characteristics, including intersex traits.
(2) The term sex includes— (A) a sex stereotype; (B) pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition; and (C) sex characteristics, including intersex traits.
Sex stereotypes would include assumptions about masculinity or femininity, expectations about how people express gender, expectations that a person consistently identify with only one gender, and expectations that certain roles are appropriate for a particular sex.
(3) The term sex stereotype includes— (A) stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity; (B) an expectation of how an individual represents or communicates their gender to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyle, activity, voice, mannerism, or body characteristic; (C) the expectation that an individual will consistently identify with only one gender; and (D) an expectation regarding the appropriateness of a role for a certain sex.
The supplied actions snapshot, updated August 13, 2025, records that the bill was introduced in the House and referred to the House Committee on Armed Services on February 24, 2025. It does not establish what happened afterward.
Source snapshot updated 2025-08-13T19:43:54Z. 2025-02-24: Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services. 2025-02-24: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-24. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow preferential benefit was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. Equal access protected through a general nondiscrimination rule is not itself preferential treatment. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Aug 13, 2025. How PlainBill uses AI