Civil rights groups on Saturday announced their intent to file suit against Donald Trump’s “mean-spirited and discriminatory” attempt to ban transgender people from serving in the US armed forces.
Trump
announced the ban on Twitter in July. Top
US military leadershave not implemented it, since no formal guidance was
provided.
But after a
report published late on Friday said the White House had approved guidance on
the ban, Lambda Legal and
OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (Outserve-SLDN) announced an intent to
file suit.
Sasha
Buchert, a Lambda Legal staff attorney and transgender military veteran, said
the ban was “capricious, irrational and clearly driven by anti-LGBT forces in
the administration who care more about harming transgender people than keeping
our nation safe”.
“The safety
of all service members – transgender or not – is undermined by a policy like
this that distracts from the important missions they have for no valid reason,” Buchert
wrote in a blogpost.
“It is also
a slap in the face of the leadership who have worked diligently to develop and
implement the current policy which has been in place for more than a year
without incident.”
Advertisement
On 26 July,
just over a year after the US defense department announced an end to its
transgender ban, Trump used Twitter to say he would reinstate it.
“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,” he wrote.
There is no
official count of transgender service members, but OutServe-SLDN estimates the
number at about 15,500. Before a ban on their service was struck down, such
service members could be involuntarily separated, discharged or denied
reenlistment or continuation of service, just for being transgender.
Shortly
after Trump’s tweeted announcement, civil liberties groups including Lambda,
OutServe-SLDN and the American Civil Liberties Union vowed to file suit once
the ban took effect.
On Friday
night, the Washington Blade, an LGBT news site, reported that the president and
White House counsel had approved formal guidance for the ban and were preparing
to deliver it to the Department of Defense.
Play
VideoPlay
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
Time 1:38
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
FullscreenMute
Facebook
Twitter Pinterest
Transgender veteran fears witch-hunt following
Trump ban – video
Sources told
the site a policy titled “A Guidance Policy for Open Transgender Service Phase
Out” would allow transgender service members to continue serving but would not
protect them from harassment and would encourage them to retire early.
Jon
Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal, said in an emailed statement the suit
would be filed “very soon” and would challenge the policy under the equal
protection and due process clauses of the constitution.
Top military
officials call on Trump to reverse transgender ban
Read more
“Further
details will be forthcoming but we are not yet ready to disclose whom we are
suing on behalf of, the named defendants or precisely when or where we will be
filing,” Davidson said.
The proposed
ban has been condemned by LGBT advocates as well as 56 retired generals and
admirals who warned that the discriminatory policy would degrade military
readiness and harm morale.
The retired
generals and admirals said Trump’s ban 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”.
0 Comments