Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal announced on Tuesday, Jan. 28, their intent to sue the Trump administration to block implementation of an executive order to bar transgender military service members from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.
The transgender military service ban was instituted by President Trump through an executive order signed Monday night and goes further than the ban issued in his first term. While the order does not include details on implementation, it is effectively a complete ban on transgender people serving in the military that is expected to impact both transgender Americans interested in enlisting and the thousands of highly trained transgender troops currently protecting our country.
Among those named in the lawsuit is Emily Shilling, a commander in the United States Navy with more than 19 years of service. She is a certified Test Pilot and a combat-experienced fighter pilot, having flown 60 combat missions in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has accrued more than 1,700 flight hours in high-performance jets such as the F/A-18 Hornet.
Schilling has been openly transgender since 2019, coming out during the last ban on transgender service members. Since then, she has continued to serve with distinction, earning a promotion with merit reorder, where she was ranked as the number one officer in her community for that promotion cycle. The Navy currently considers her fully medically qualified to fly high-performance jets and has invested more than $20 million in her training. She is also the President of SPARTA, an advocacy group representing thousands of active and reserve, all-volunteer, combat-ready transgender troops.
In 2017, Trump tweeted his intention to ban transgender Americans from serving openly in the U.S. military. HRC, represented by Lambda Legal and the Modern Military Association of America, sued to block this policy on behalf of transgender service members.
Courts unanimously blocked the policy until the Supreme Court allowed the executive order to take effect while the case made its way through the courts.
The original suit was known as Karnoski v. Trump. The suit was filed on behalf of six transgender service members, two transgender people wishing to serve and a ninth individual serving in the military but wishing to remain anonymous.
The Biden administration later rescinded the policy upon taking office in 2021.
“We have been here before and seven years ago were able to successfully block the earlier administration’s effort to prevent patriotic, talented Americans from serving their country,” Lambda Legal Counsel Sasha Buchert said. “Not only is such a move cruel, it compromises the safety and security of our country and is particularly dangerous and wrong. As we promised then, so do we now: we will sue.”
“Our military service members, including thousands of transgender troops, wear the same uniform, take the same oath, and meet the same rigorous standards. They are heroes who put their lives on the line to protect our country — and we owe them all a debt of gratitude” said Sarah Warbelow, HRC vice president of legal.
“Instead, this discriminatory ban insults their service and puts our national security at risk. Expelling highly trained members of our military undermines military readiness and wastes years of financial and training investments,” Warbelow continued. “It also needlessly upends the lives of families who have already sacrificed so much. The Commander-in-Chief should prioritize our military’s safety and readiness, not use his position to issue bans on entire groups of people. This order is unconstitutional, and we will see this administration in court.”
— David Taffet