ACLU sues Trump over transgender military ban
Federal lawsuit says president's policy violates equal protection rights of soldiers, who now have 'grave reason to fear for their careers'
BALTIMORE — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender individuals joining the military.
The federal lawsuit, Stone v. Trump, was filed in Maryland on Monday by the ACLU of Maryland on behalf of Petty Officer First Class Brock Stone, an 11-year Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, as well as several other transgender members of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines.
Trump directed the Pentagon on Friday to implement the ban on transgender individuals joining the military, which he first announced in a tweet. He also gave to the Pentagon the authority to decide the future of openly transgender people already serving.
The lawsuit says Trump’s policy violates the equal protection rights of transgender service members, who now have “grave reason to fear for their careers.”
The lawsuit questions the premise for the ban cited in the president’s tweets. Trump wrote that he made his decision after consulting with “my Generals and military experts,” saying they “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
But the lawsuit says news reports indicate top “military officials were surprised by Trump’s announcement, and that his actual motivations were purely political, reflecting a desire to accommodate legislators and advisers who bear animus and moral disapproval toward men and women who are transgender, with a goal of gaining votes for a spending bill that included money to build a border wall with Mexico.”
Estimates of the number of transgender troops in the US military vary widely.
A much-cited study by the Rand Corporation in June 2016 found there are between 1,320 and 6,630 among the 1.3 million active duty service members.
But the Human Rights Campaign civil rights organization said there are currently about 15,000 serving transgender troops.
The RAND study noted that only a small portion of service members would ever seek gender transition that would affect their deployability or health costs, adding between $2.4 million and $8.4 million to the Pentagon’s vast budget.
The issue of transgender rights in America has been increasingly in the spotlight in recent months, especially over how states regulate the use of public restrooms.
The Trump administration faced protests earlier this year after it reversed Obama-era federal protections that urged schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, not the gender on their birth certificate.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.