January 22, 2019: The Supreme Court of the United States has given the Trump administration the green light to discriminate against people of trans experience. Positive Women’s Network-USA (PWN-USA) strongly condemns this latest assault on the rights and dignity of people of trans experience.
Trump initially announced that his administration would adopt a policy of banning people of trans experience from serving in the U.S. military in a series of tweets in July 2017. Former Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, later issued a memo outlining the administration’s rationale and plan for implementing Trump’s anti-trans policy, calling for a ban on service in addition to discharge of those military service members who wish to transition. This transphobic document was used as part of a feeble attempt to provide justification for the ban and disguise it as a “new policy.” LGBT rights advocates denounced the ban as worse than “don’t ask-don’t tell” by treating being transgender as an illegitimate identity.
The Trump administration had been barred from enforcing the ban on military service for people of trans experience since December 2017 thanks to directives from multiple lower courts that prevented the ban from being implemented. These directives are known as injunctions. On January 4, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against transgender service members and lifted one of these injunctions. However, three nationwide preliminary injunctions in other cases still remained, effectively blocking the ban while they proceeded through the courts.
Today, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision in favor of the Trump administration by lifting two of the injunctions. One injunction was not litigated, so that preliminary injunction remains in effect for now. However, it will very likely follow the others, at which point the administration can temporarily implement the ban — at least while the policy is challenged through the courts.
PWN-USA has previously reported on the proposed ban here and here. This latest development is a troubling preview into this Supreme Court’s perspective on LGBTQ rights and equality.
