Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation filed a federal lawsuit today (Thursday, Feb., 6) challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender individuals.
The lawsuit — brought in response to the administration’s recent executive order — was filed on behalf of six actively-serving transgender service members, a transgender person seeking to enlist in the military and Gender Justice League, a civil and human rights organization headquartered in Seattle.
Sasha Buchert, cunsel and Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project director for Lambda Legal, said in a written statement that the ban “not only wrongfully prevents patriotic, talented Americans from serving, it also compromises the safety and security of our country. Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving courageously and successfully in the U.S. military.
“Once again attacking a vulnerable population based on bias, political opportunism and demonstrably untrue ‘alternative facts,’ President Trump is seeking to deny courageous transgender people the opportunity to serve our country,” Buhert added. “He’s got to get through us first.”
Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal for HRCF, said the ban is “a threat to our national security, wastes years of training and financial investments and is unconstitutional.”
She added, “Thousands of transgender servicemembers have already met the military’s rigorous standards and more than proven themselves. Our military must be able to recruit the best candidates and retain the highly-trained servicemembers, and every qualified patriot should be able to serve free of discrimination.
“Thank you to the courageous plaintiffs who have already sacrificed so much for this country, and now are fighting to continue their service in the face of a cruel and dangerous ban,” Warbelow said.
Lambda Legal and HRCF filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The plaintiffs include: Commander Emily “Hawking” Shilling, United States Navy, with 19 years of service; Commander Blake Dremann, United States Navy, with 19 years of service; Lieutenant Commander Geirid Morgan, United States Navy, with 14 years of service; Sergeant First Class Cathrine “Katie” Schmid, United States Army, with 20 years of service; Sergeant First Class Jane Doe, United States Army, with 17 years of service; Staff Sergeant Videl Leins, United States Air Force, with 16 years of service; Matthew Medina, a transgender person seeking to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, and Gender Justice League, a civil and human rights organization.
Commander Shilling said, “The assertion that transgender service members like myself are inherently untrustworthy or lack honor is an insult to all who have dedicated their lives to defending this country.”
Shilling and each of the other plaintiffs quoted here stressed that they were speaking in a personal capacity and that their views and opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Navy or Department of Defense.
“My nearly two decades of service as a naval aviator and test pilot, routinely selected for the most challenging leadership roles, with 60 combat missions and more than 1,700 flight hours in high-performance jets, speaks for itself,” Shilling continued. “I have been selected for promotion and ranked number one in my community for merit. Not because of my identity; our boards are deliberately blind to such things, but because my performance and leadership set me apart. What greater proof of merit is required?”
Shilling said Trump’s ban is not about readiness or cohesion” and “certainly not about merit,” but rather about “exclusion and betrayal, purposely targeting those of us who volunteered to serve, simply for having the courage and integrity to live our truth.”
Lt. Commander Morgan said she is “one of thousands of transgender service members currently serving honorably on active duty in the US military.
“Transgender Americans who volunteer to serve in the Armed Forces meet the same standards and requirements to serve as any other warfighter, and we have earned our place in the military,” Morgan continued. “Our nation has invested billions of dollars into our military training and experience, and we have invested years of our lives and countless hours of hard work in service to this nation. I am truly hopeful that our case filing will ensure that those investments don’t go to waste.
“Our dedication and our sacrifice, as well as that of our families, is not worth any less to the military or the American people.”
Medina called the executive order “nothing more than just a discriminatory attack against transgender individuals like myself and many others to paint us as the problem in today’s world and keep everyone else distracted from the actual problems at hand like mental health, veteran benefits and many more.”
He added, “I cannot stand for this blatant exploitation of human rights to go on any further, and I will not be shamed for my identity. I am human first like everyone else and should only be seen for my humanity.”
Sergeant First Class Schmid said, “I’ve served my country for 20 years. I’ve deployed across half the world, led soldiers in all kinds of weather and fought in every domain. The Army invested in my skills, awarded my performance and entrusted me to uphold the values of our noble profession. I ask nothing more than to continue that mission.
“Let the DoD prove its dedication to merit and performance over arbitrary measures like the fact that I’m trans, and let me serve,” Schmid added.
Danni Askini, executive director for Gender Justice League, said their organization is “honored to stand with the thousands of brave trans service members in fighting for a U.S. Military that bases employment on merit and qualifications and that does not discriminate simply on the basis of who people are.
“For the last 10 years, tens of thousands of transgender people have served our country honorably in all branches in nearly all fields. This executive order harms our military’s retention and recruitment and deprives us of highly trained service members when we need them most,” Askini said.
In 2017, then-President Trump announced via tweet his intention to ban transgender Americans from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Services. The Human Rights Campaign, represented by Lambda Legal and the Modern Military Association of America sued to block this policy, one of several such lawsuits filed by sister organizations across the country. Courts unanimously blocked the policy before the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect during the pendency of the cases.
The Biden administration later rescinded the policy upon taking office in 2021. Read about the first lawsuit, Karnoski v. Trump, here.
The government-commissioned RAND study released in May 2016 determined that the cost of providing transition-related care is exceedingly small relative to U.S. Armed Forces overall health care expenditures, that there are no readiness implications that prevent transgender members from serving openly, and that numerous foreign militaries have successfully permitted open service without a negative effect on effectiveness, readiness or unit cohesion.
The Lambda Legal attorneys working on the case are: Sasha Buchert, Jenny Pizer, Camilla Taylor, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Kenneth Upton, and Kell Olson. They are joined by co-counsel Sarah Warbelow, Cynthia Weaver, and Ami Patel of HRCF and co-counsel at Perkins Coie.
Read the complaint here: Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief – Lambda Legal.