in effect
This is an interim final rule from the Department of Defense, effective December 1, 2025, that amends the federal regulations governing ID cards issued to uniformed service members, their dependents, and other eligible individuals. It was issued to carry out a January 2025 Executive Order requiring federal agencies to use the term “sex” rather than “gender” in official documents and to recognize only two sexes as fixed biological categories.
The rule removes an existing procedure—established by a February 2024 DoD rule—that allowed military retirees, dependents, and contractor employees to request a change to their “gender marker” in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) through a signed personal statement. Going forward, changes to that data field will only be made to correct administrative errors; no self-attestation requests will be accepted or processed. The rule also replaces the term “gender marker” with “sex code” and substitutes “gender” with “sex” in three other places in the regulation. The rule took effect immediately on publication without a prior public comment period, though public comments are being accepted through January 30, 2026.
Military retirees, their dependents, and DoD contractor employees who previously had the option to update the sex/gender marker on their DEERS record can no longer do so through self-attestation. Active-duty service members are not covered by this specific rule change, as the removed procedure applied only to the retiree, dependent, and contractor categories.