LOS ANGELES – A human rights group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles against President Donald J. Trump and other top members of his administration, alleging that a ban against transgender people serving in the military is unconstitutional.
The suit, filed by LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California on behalf of a group of transgender soldiers, alleges that the ban unlawfully discriminates against transgender people on the basis of their gender identity, impinges upon their fundamental rights by penalizing and stigmatizing them for expressing their personal identity, and violates the right of transgender service members to openly express who they are.
The complaint states that the ban is arbitrary, without a rational basis, and motivated by animus against transgender people.
“This action, brought on behalf of transgender individuals, seeks to ensure that all qualified Americans have an equal opportunity to serve in the United States military, that transgender individuals are free from arbitrary and invidious discrimination and that the constitutional rights of transgender individuals to autonomy, privacy and freedom of expression are respected and protected,” the suit states.
The suit was lodged on behalf of four named and three unnamed transgender plaintiffs, who contend they are harmed by the ban. Los Angeles- based Equality California represents more than 500,000 members in California, including transgender people directly affected by the president’s order.
California is home to the largest number of LGBT people and the largest concentration of servicemembers of any state, according to Equality California. The three unnamed plaintiffs are active duty transgender servicemembers serving in the United States Army and Air Force.
Among the four named individual plantiffs is Jaquice Tate, 27, an active-duty member of the Army. Three others — Aiden Stockman, 20, Nicolas Talbott, 23, and Tamasyn Reeves, 29 — are barred by the Aug. 25 directive from enlisting.
Along with Trump, the complaint names Defense Secretary James Mattis, and other top military officials as defendants, against whom it asserts several constitutional claims under the Fifth and First Amendments.
“President Trump has attacked American heroes who have risen above discrimination, hostility and lack of acceptance to serve our country by putting their lives on the line in its defense,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “His justification for the ban bears no relation to the truth. Contrary to what the president states, ejecting loyal members of the armed forces promotes chaos and division, not unit cohesion.”
Zbur said the cost to the government of transition-related care is negligible.
“On the other hand, discharging thousands will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and will rip trained and loyal service members out of their units, harming military readiness and requiring the military to find and pay to train replacements,” he said. “The order effectively leaves no discretion to military leaders, many of whom are firmly opposed to this ban.”
Trump issued his directive to the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, reinstating a prohibition against transgender servicemembers lifted last year and making good on his intentions announced on Twitter this past July to renew the ban. It also bars funding to pay for essential medical care for transgender service members except when “necessary to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex.” The ban must be fully implemented by March.
“Military policy must be based on military concerns, not politics,” said Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which consulted with Equality California in preparing the case.
“As the military itself concluded, transgender people who qualify for military service are just as capable of serving our country as others,” Minter said. “The president’s new policy is an assault on dedicated service members who deserve nothing but our gratitude and respect, and it will undermine our national security.”
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Catherine says
Better watch out, people! Don’t start getting the trannies riled up. Or, they’ll start tearing down more monuments… of Bobby Unser. Secretariat. Elvis. And, what little Bob’s Big Boy statues still left standing –
Timothy says
ticked-off trannies, throwing another hissy fit
William says
@Timothy
I bet any one of them serving right now in the Middle East could wipe the floor with you.
What are you? 5’9″ 165 lbs.
KEW says
Agreed
Eeww says
I’d rather they mop the floor with pinesol, get a non violent career or job, and leave the military be with the enough problems that they have to deal with.
Jackson says
You’d best watch out, boy. Them trannies is hung like a rhinoceros. When they getting together, teaming up in the foxhole, and they get thermselves a hold of one of them straight buck privates, that is all she wrote. Or, pa haps more appropriately, that’s all “he” wrote. Them trannies, they’s going to be the cornholers. The straight buck private, he’s going to be the cornholee…
JP says
Best movie, ever! “Ticked-off Trannies with Knives!”
Tim Scott says
The military is, and always has been, completely capable of saying “voluntary surgery is not part of the health care you get.” They don’t pay for plastic surgery unless it relates to wounds received in service, and they don’t pay for gender transitions. They also don’t consider recovery time from such non-covered procedures to be “sick time.”
So this transgender ban has NOTHING to do with people in the military transitioning genders, because that’s already taken care of by routine health care policies. This is about people who have completed their transition and want to serve their country…and not letting them because in some way D’ump has determined that transgender is “unamerican.”
This lawsuit is pretty much a lock down winner.
KEW says
I agree with your comments 99.9 % of the time. But this time you’re a little wrong. Please read the article ” Pentagon to cover sex-reassignment surgery for transgender active-duty troops.” from the Military Times 19 Sep 2016.
Tim Scott says
An important quote from the article: “if their physicians deem it necessary.” Just like a soldier can get a “nose job” courtesy of the US military “if their physicians deem it necessary” even though it is normally considered elective cosmetic surgery. If your nose is so misshapen that it impairs your breathing then a doctor may deem such surgery necessary rather than elective.
I appreciate you calling this article to my attention, but I’m not convinced that it really counters my previous comment. I just don’t see military doctors ever deeming gender reassignment surgeries as “necessary.”
Andy says
“Pentagon to cover sex-reassignment surgery for transgender active-duty troops” Military Times Sept 2016
Alby says
“The military is a fighting force, not a gender clinic.”
Peraas says
Agree.
Tom says
The media refuses to say any reasons for the ban. Yet any man or woman that has served can tell you that transgenders medical needs can fall under the same explanation why people with asthma and diabetes cant serve in the military. In most cases medications can not be transported or made available too those in need while on missions and or in combat situations. Estrogen and testosterone may not be a life saving drug, but are needed just as medications for diabetic and asthmatic people.
Matt says
Are u really spinning it to Trump is not allowing transgenders into the military out of concern that they will not get the medication they need? Wow! Lol.