Tag: transgender military

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.