The latest in a series of legal setbacks for President Donald Trump’s expansive agenda came Tuesday when a federal court delayed the implementation of his executive order prohibiting transgender individuals from serving in the military.
According to US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC, Trump’s directive to bar transgender soldiers from serving in the military probably infringes upon their constitutional rights.
In order to allow the administration time to file an appeal, she postponed her order until Friday.
“The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes,” Reyes stated. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
For six transgender active-duty service members and two individuals who want to enlist in the military, the judge granted a preliminary injunction that the attorneys had requested.
The executive order, which Trump signed on January 27, asserts that transgender service members’ sexual identities “conflict with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and negatively impact military readiness.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to the directive by issuing a guideline that presumes that individuals with gender dysphoria are not eligible to serve in the military.
The distress a person has when their ascribed gender and gender identity don’t match is known as gender dysphoria. Suicidal thoughts and depression have been associated with the medical condition.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that Trump’s ban infringes upon transgender people’s Fifth Amendment right to equal protection.
Government attorneys contend that military leaders are free to choose how to deploy and assign service members without interference from the courts.
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Less than 1% of active-duty service personnel are transgender, despite the fact that thousands of transgender persons serve in the military.
Transgender individuals were allowed to serve openly in the military in 2016 according to a Defense Department policy. Trump, a Republican, signed an order to bar transgender service personnel during his first term in office.
The Supreme Court approved the ban’s implementation. When Democrat Joe Biden took office, he abandoned it.
People who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service,” according to Hegseth’s Feb. 26 policy.
An Army Reserves platoon leader from Pennsylvania, an Army major who received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan, and a Navy Sailor of the Year are among the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to overturn Trump’s decision.
According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law, their lawyers stated that transgender soldiers “seek nothing more than the opportunity to continue dedicating their lives to defending the Nation.”
“Yet these accomplished service members are now subject to an order that says they must be separated from the military based on a characteristic that has no bearing on their proven ability to do the job,” plaintiffs’ attorneys stated. “This is a stark and reckless reversal of policy that denigrates honorable transgender service members, disrupts unit cohesion, and weakens our military.”
