Tag: transgender military

Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN announced today they have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender individuals.

Via press release:

The lawsuit — brought in response to President Trump’s formal issuance of directions to military authorities late Friday — was filed on behalf of two individuals who seek to join the military; one current service member who seeks appointment as an officer; the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization; and Gender Justice League, a gender and sexuality civil and human rights organization, headquartered in Seattle.

“This ban not only wrongfully prevents patriotic, talented Americans from serving, it also compromises the safety and security of our country,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn said. “Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving openly, courageously and successfully in the U.S. military for more than a year—not to mention the previous decades when many were forced to serve in silence. Once again attacking a vulnerable population based on bias, political opportunism and demonstrably untrue ‘alternative facts,’ President Trump is denying brave men and women the opportunity to serve our country without any legitimate justification whatsoever.”

“We promised that we would sue if the president took this action. The law is on our side; justice is on our side,” said Peter Perkowski, Legal Director for OutServe-SLDN. “And we are on the side of every single transgender service member and those who want to serve. The nation’s courts exist to protect the people whom tyrants would otherwise abuse. Trump can’t tweet his way out of this one.”

A second lawsuit was filed in federal court in Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union and the D.C.-based law firm Covington & Burling LLP.

From the Washington Blade:

The plaintiffs in that lawsuit, Stone v. Trump, are five transgender troops currently in the military representing each of the military branches: Petty Officer First Class Brock Stone, Senior Airman John Doe, Airman First Class Seven Ero George, Petty Officer First Class Teagan Gilbert, and Marine Corps Technical Sergeant Tommie Parker.

Stone, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, has served in the U.S. Navy for nine years, including a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan. According to the lawsuit, Stone was awarded an achievement medal for his deployment as well as multiple other commendations, including a flag letter of commendation and multiple recommendations for early promotion.

The ACLU lawsuit contends every component of Trump’s ban “singles out transgender service members for different treatment” amounting to sex discrimination, which is subject to, and fails, heightened scrutiny under the Fifth Amendment.

President Trump has officially signed a presidential memo today instructing the Department of Defense to stop accepting new transgender recruits who wish to enroll in the military.

The move is a reversal of an Obama-era plan to allow transgender folks to serve openly in the U.S. military.

From The Hill:

The memo details Trump’s previous Twitter announcement last month that he would reinstate a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, and officially requests the Pentagon begin implementing the ban.

Trump’s memo bars transgender people from enlisting, but instructs Secretary of Defense James Mattis to further explore how to handle transgender people currently serving in the armed forces.

The memo also orders the Pentagon to stop paying for gender reassignment surgeries, except in cases that are already in progress to “protect the health of an individual.”

It also requests that the Pentagon develop an implementation plan for the ban by Feb. 21 2018, to be put in place on March 23, 2018.

On a call with reporters prior to the memo’s release, a White House official said Trump “spoke passionately” about the freedoms of the LGBT community, but based the policy on a “series of national security considerations,” according to reports.

Trump’s guidelines instruct the Defense and Homeland Security departments “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,” a White House official said.

While Trump’s initial surprise tweet called for the ban for financial reasons, we all know now that the real reason is a group of GOP lawmakers who threatened to torpedo financing for his wall along the Mexican border if he didn’t acquiesce to their demands that he eject trans military members.

The Rand Corporation estimates medical costs for trans military members to be at most $8.4 million a year.

At the same time, the Department of Defense reportedly for male service members with erectile dysfunction.

Think on that for a minute – $41 million for limp penises is ok, but $8 million for capable trans soldiers is a bridge too far.

According to the latest poll from Quinnipiac University, 68% of Americans say transgender people should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military; 27% oppose the idea.

Additionally, a new report shows it could cost around $960 million to kick transgender people out of the the U.S. military. That means, in terms of lost training and replacement, over 100x the cost of medical treatments.

Put another way, it will take over 100 years to “break even” on the costs of kicking out transgender military service members.

Even though Donald Trump’s nascent ban on transgender military service members isn’t in place yet, two LGBTQ advocacy groups have filed a law suit to enjoin enforcement of the ban.

From the Washington Blade‘s Chris Johnson:

The 15-page complaint was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders on behalf of five anonymous transgender service members identified as “Jane Doe.”

Although the Pentagon has said there would be “no modifications” to transgender service until further guidance from the White House, the lawsuit — known as Doe v. Trump — maintains Trump’s announcement “upset the reasonable expectations of plaintiffs and thousands of other transgender service members and the men and women with whom they serve and fight.”

“Execution of the president’s directive will result in an end to service by openly transgender service members and has already resulted in immediate, concrete injury to plaintiffs by unsettling and destabilizing plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of continued service,” the lawsuit says.

This undermining of transgender service members’ expectation of continued military service amounts to a violation of the right to equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit alleges.

Also violated by the intent to ban transgender people from the U.S. armed forces, the complaint says, is the legal doctrine of estoppel — a legal doctrine against making assertions contradictory to a previously held position. Trump’s transgender military ban violates estoppel, the lawsuit says, because the Obama administration assured transgender people the ability to serve last year by lifting the medical regulation barring their service.

The lawsuit names as defendants President Trump, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, the secretaries for each of the military services and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, who oversees the U.S. Coast Guard.

Johnson notes in his article that Outserve-SLDN, the LGBT military group, also plans to file suit once an actual policy change is announced.

Experts put the cost of the ban in the neighborhood of $960 million.

As Donald Trump begins his 17 day vacation at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, the Washington Blade reports that his White House Counsel has approved preliminary “guidance” for booting transgender service members out of the U.S. military.

Approved by Trump, the new policy is expected to be now delivered into the hands of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has been quiet on the issue with approximately 15,000 trans service members under his command.

After his review, Mattis is expected to order a deliberate implementation by the Pentagon, which could take a period of time.

Though the policy—called “A Guidance Policy for Open Transgender Service Phase Out”—has not yet been made public, sources familiar with the planning said it would encourage early retirement, usher out any enlisted personnel after their contract is up, and would fire trans officers up for promotion. Basically, said a source, “the administration wants to get rid of transgender service members as fast as they can.”

No one yet knows what will happen to the service members currently fighting in combat. The new policy does allow trans service members to continue serving but apparently does not offer any protection from harassment or other efforts to get them to quit.

As previously reported, Trump tweeted a major shift in military policy regarding transgender troops on July 26, saying:

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

Since Trump’s tweets on transgender service, multiple leaders in the U.S. military have signaled their opposition.

A statement issued by 56 retired generals and admirals read in part, “This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy.”

And Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, commandant of the Coast Guard, told reporters he plans to continue support the transgender troops under his command despite the Trump tweets.

Eighteen countries allow transgender personnel to serve openly in the military, including Australia, Israel, Britain, Sweden and Canada.