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Federal judge blocks Trump’s trans military ban

However, the ruling is not all good news for LGBTQ advocates.

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Tess Cagle

IRL

Posted on Oct 30, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 12:50 pm CDT

A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from changing its military policy to ban transgender troops.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the administration must “revert to the status quo,” meaning it must go back to the standards prior to President Trump’s Aug. 26 memo to the Pentagon outlining a ban on all transgender people who wish to serve in the U.S. military.

In response to Trump’s memo at the time, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a motion for preliminary injunction to put a halt on the ban, which Kollar-Kotelly issued this morning.

 

“There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effect on the military at all,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her ruling, according to Bloomberg. “In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects.”

However, the judge didn’t grant all of the NCLR’s and GLAD’s request.

While the court issued a preliminary injunction against the actual ban of transgender people, it denied a request in respect to the Sex “Reassignment” Surgery Directive, in which President Trump ordered the Pentagon to hault the funding of gender confirmation surgeries for service members.

As the news spread on Twitter, transgender people and advocates shared their relief that at least the ban had been blocked.

https://twitter.com/lauraOsolow/status/925043327145271298

https://twitter.com/cigarboyrick82/status/925050733510217728

The NCLR and GLAD now have until Nov. 10 to file a Joint Status Report indicating how they propose to proceed.

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*First Published: Oct 30, 2017, 1:14 pm CDT

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle is a reporter who focuses on politics, lifestyle, and streaming entertainment. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman, Damn Joan, and Community Impact Newspaper. She’s also a portrait, events, and live music photographer in Central Texas.

Tess Cagle