By Margaret Talev
Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump has banned transgender people from the U.S. military in most circumstances.
Trump, in a White House statement released on Friday night, said “transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria—individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery—are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.”
The ban, which Trump first proposed last summer, touched off an immediate legal battle.
Citing threats to troop readiness and morale, as well as costs associated with medical services, Trump said in a series of tweets in July that he would reverse President Barack Obama’s policy allowing transgender soldiers to serve.
“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the U.S. government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military,” the president said, though the announcement seemed to catch the Pentagon off guard.
Treatment of transgender people has become another battle front in the nation’s clash over values, with social conservatives leading campaigns in some states to require that students use school restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth. In the 2016 campaign, Trump actively sought out culturally conservative voters while also promising to “fight for” the gay and transgender community.
At least four lawsuits have been filed seeking to overturn the ban, and several courts issued preliminary injunctions while the cases proceed. In November, U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis in Baltimore, called the president’s tweets announcing the change in policy “capricious, arbitrary, and unqualified.”
And last week, a federal judge in Washington said that the Trump administration had failed to identify evidence it might use to defend the policy.
That judge, Marsha Pechman, criticized the administration’s earlier claims that no such information could be identified because the policy was not in effect.
