The LGBTQ+ community have been dealt a huge blow as the Supreme Court
of the United States, SCOTUS, on Tuesday, allowed President Donald
Trump’s transgender military ban to go into effect.
Trump caused an uproar in July 2017 when he announced via Twitter a
sweeping ban on transgender people’s military service. He cited the
“tremendous medical costs and disruption” as a reason for his decision.
Even as the legal battle continues in lower courts, the Supreme Court
justices allowed the ban to go into effect. The Justices lifted
nationwide injunctions that had kept Trump’s transgender military ban
from being implemented. It also reversed an Obama administration rule
that would have allowed transgender men and women to serve openly and
receive funding for sex-reassignment surgery.
This means that those who identify with a gender different from the
one assigned at birth and who are seeking to transition are barred from
joining the military.
The court’s five conservative justices — Chief Justice John G.
Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M.
Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh — allowed the restrictions to go into
effect while the court decides whether to consider the merits of the
case.
Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, while
reacting to the transgender military ban, said: “As always, we treat all
transgender persons with respect and dignity.”
She added that the Defense Department’s “proposed policy is NOT a ban
on service by transgender persons. It is critical that DoD be permitted
to implement personnel policies that it determines are necessary to
ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world.
DoD’s proposed policy is based on professional military judgment and
will ensure that the U.S. Armed Forces remain the most lethal and combat
effective fighting force in the world.”