President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting transgender individuals from serving and enlisting in the military was challenged in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by two major LGBTQ legal organizations. Six trans military members on active duty and two trans individuals looking to enlist were the parties to the lawsuit.
Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), stated in a statement that this prohibition violates core American principles of fair opportunity and evaluating individuals based on their merits. To forward a political agenda, it shuts the door on eligible patriots who fit all the requirements and merely wish to serve their nation. Not only is that un-American, but it also undermines our nation by alienating skilled service personnel who risk their lives for us every day.
One day after the president signed an executive order limiting transgender military service, GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a lawsuit against Trump and a number of military leaders in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The directive, which is headed “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” revokes a 2021 order issued by then-President Joe Bident that let transgender individuals to enlist and serve openly, and it reinstates a policy from Trump’s first term.
“To protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” the presidential order states, is the goal of the new strategy. It further states that “the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”
In order to “end invented and identification-based pronoun usage,” restrict coverage of certain transition-related care, and prevent individuals assigned male at birth from using women’s sleeping, changing, and bathing facilities, the executive order mandates that the Defense Department update its medical standards within 60 days.
“President Trump s ban on transgender people serving in the military discriminates against Plaintiffs based on their sex and based on their transgender status, without lawful justification, in violation of the Equal Protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment,” the complaint filed on Tuesday states. “Rather than being based on any legitimate governmental purpose, the ban reflects animosity toward transgender people because of their transgender status.”
A request for comment on the complaint from NBC News was not immediately answered by the White House.
According to the lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs, Army 2nd Lt. Nicholas Talbott, is a transgender man, age 31, who has distinguished himself while serving in an Army Reserve unit in Pennsylvania. Talbott, according to the lawsuit, was “named Honor Graduate at basic combat training by his drill sergeants for going above and beyond in training and stepping up to leadership roles.”
According to a statement from Talbott, differences vanish when you put on the uniform and your ability to perform the job is what counts. To serve, each person needs to fulfill the same strict requirements and goal. Since I can remember, serving my country has been both my dream and my objective. My loyalty to my unit, my devotion to the mission, and my capacity to carry out my responsibilities in a way that meets the high standards required of me and every service member are all unaffected by my gender identity.
Trump’s last trans military ban was challenged by GLAD and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in 2017, and as a consequence, many judges prevented the policy from going into effect for almost two years. The Supreme Court permitted the policy to go into force in 2019 while lower courts continued to hear cases.
Service members’ opposition to the lawsuit is even more vehement this time, according to Shannon Minter, vice president of legal at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. He pointed out that in its historic ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, in 2020, the Supreme Court declared that discrimination based on transgender status constituted discrimination based on sex. Minter went on to say that this means the trans military ban, which inherently discriminates based on trans status, would need to prove that it is justifiable in order to serve a legitimate government interest.
Additionally, Minter stated that transgender individuals have been serving openly for four years and “have more than proved themselves.”
“They’ve been deployed, they’re serving, they’re meeting all the same standards,” he stated. “President Trump didn’t claim that this was arising out of some problems that are occurring.”
Trump “openly expressed his animosity and hostility towards transgender people” through the executive order, Minter continued. “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,” he said, pointing to the top of the order. Trans identities, according to the order, are “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
“The government can’t discriminate against a group of people because it doesn’t like them,” Minter stated.
One of the Navy’s top-ranking out transgender individuals, Emily Shilling, a commander, said her coworkers had expressed their support for her since learning of the renewed restriction.
The president of SPARTA, an advocacy group for transgender service members and veterans, Shilling said, “Everyone is rallying behind me, but they always have, because I’ve shown up every day.” “The least intriguing thing about me at work is that I’m transsexual. They’re concerned about their leader, and I’m a good one.”
The number of transgender individuals serving in the military is not officially disclosed by the Defense Department, and estimates vary greatly. Before transgender persons were allowed to serve openly, two reports were released: one from the Williams Institute at UCLA Law in 2014 and another from the Rand Corp. in 2016. The former indicated that there were 15,500 trans people serving, while the latter suggested that there were between 2,150 and 10,790.
Hours after taking office, Trump further restricted military service for transgender individuals with an executive order that targeted “gender ideology.” The State Department froze all passport applications seeking a sex-marker change after the directive stated that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, and that these sexes are unchangeable and based on fundamental and unquestionable reality.