Lawsuit filed against Trump’s trans military ban

A LAWSUIT has been filed against Donald Trump’s proposed ban on trans people in the US military.

This week the GLBTQ Legal Advocates Defenders (GLAD) and the National Centre for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) lodged the lawsuit challenging the ban, Gay Star News has reported.

Lawyers filed the suit on behalf of five trans military personnel who have almost 60 years of collective experience in the US military.

“Trump’s directive to exclude transgender people from military service has created a tidal wave of harms that have already been felt throughout our armed services,” said Shannon Minter, NCLR legal director.

“Transgender service members have been blindsided by this shift and are scrambling to deal with what it means for their futures and their families.”

The lawsuit details the history of trans people in the military, including the Department of Defense’s decision last year to allow them to serve openly.

“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 destabilising plaintiffs’ reasonable expectations of continued service,” the lawsuit says.

It also raises the matter of presidential tweets becoming policy, “made without consulting the Joint Chiefs of Staff”.

The lawsuit aims to put a “declaratory and permanent” stop to a potential ban on trans military personnel.

“The Commander in Chief has said that transgender service members—people who have served our nation with honour and distinction—are no longer welcome to serve,” said Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project.

“This unjustifiable reversal of policy is devastating to these soldiers and harmful to our country. These plaintiffs put their lives on the line every single day for all of us. We can’t afford to lose a single one of them.”