Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal Will Sue to Block Trump Administration’s Renewed Transgender Military Service Ban

by HRC Staff

Today, the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal announced their intent to sue the Trump administration to block implementation of yet another discriminatory and dangerous attempt to bar patriotic 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 last 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 trangender troops currently protecting our country. 

“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, Human Rights Campaign 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. 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.”

“I just want to continue serving, using the skills this nation invested in me as a fighter pilot and leader,” said Emily Shilling, speaking in her personal capacity and whose views and opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Navy or Department of Defense. “For nearly two decades, I’ve upheld the highest standards of excellence, leading teams in combat and peace. All I ask is the opportunity to keep using my training and experience to serve this country with honor, courage, and dedication.”

“We have been here before and seven years ago successfully blocked 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 to block this action.

“Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving openly, courageously and successfully in the U.S. military for more than eight years — not to mention the previous decades when many were forced to serve in silence," Buchert added. "Once again, as during the first term, the Trump administration is attacking a vulnerable population based on bias, political opportunism and demonstrably untrue ‘alternative facts,’ denying brave men and women the opportunity to serve our country without any legitimate justification whatsoever.”

Emily Shilling is 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, 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 on behalf of transgender servicemembers, 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 Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal’s first lawsuit, Karnoski v. Trumphere.

 

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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