Two national LGBTQ+ advocacy groups on Tuesday filed the first federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed the suit, Talbott v. Trump, on behalf of six active-duty trans service members and two prospective service members. The groups allege that the ban violates the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Trump issued an executive order late Monday night that reinstates a policy from his first term and rescinds an order by former President Joe Biden that allowed trans people to enlist and to receive health coverage for gender-affirming care.
The order states that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” It further says that people experiencing gender dysphoria, who may need medical and surgical treatments, are essentially unfit to adhere to the United States government’s policy to establish “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity and integrity.”
The plaintiffs argue that the ban isn’t based on “any legitimate government purpose,” and instead reflects “animosity toward transgender people because of their transgender status.”
“It slams the door on qualified patriots who meet every standard and want nothing more than to serve their country, simply to appease a political agenda,” Jennifer Levi, an attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said in a written statement. “That’s not just un-American, it makes our country weaker by pushing away talented service members who put their lives on the line every day for our nation.”
The lawsuit represents transgender people serving in various branches of the military and across the country, including a high-ranking major, a captain and a Navy pilot.
One plaintiff, Major Erica Vandal, a 36-year-old trans woman, has served within the United States Army for nearly 14 years. In 2022 she began receiving gender-affirming care and during that time was promoted to her current rank.
The ban not only threatens Vandal’s ability to continue her career, but she and her family would lose access to the military’s retirement and G.I. Bill education benefits, according to the suit.
Another plaintiff, Second Lieutenant Nicolas Talbott, the 31-year-old trans man for whom the case is named, has served within the United States Army Reserves for almost a year. Talbott is scheduled to begin training for his new role as a platoon leader in the military policing unit this summer, but the ban could throw his promotion into jeopardy.
“It has been my dream and my goal to serve my country for as long as I can remember,” Talbott said in a written statement. “My being transgender has no bearing on my dedication to the mission, my commitment to my unit, or my ability to perform my duties in accordance with the high standards expected of me and every servicemember.”
In July 2017, Trump enacted the first ban on trans service members in the military, announced through a series of tweets. That decision sent shockwaves around the Department of Defense, and senior Pentagon leaders were “caught flat-footed” by the announcement, according to emails uncovered at the time by the watchdog group American Oversight.
Under that policy, transgender service members who had come out as trans before the restriction were allowed to continue serving and receiving gender-affirming care, but those who came out after could only continue serving with other members of their assigned sex at birth. The ban also barred prospective trans members from enlisting.
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This new order goes a step further and mandates that the Department of Defense update its medical standards within 60 days, bar people assigned male at birth sleeping, changing or bathing in women’s facilities, and end “invented and identification based pronoun usage” among the ranks.
It’s unclear what will happen to trans service members who are currently receiving care through Tricare, the military’s health care program. But Biden signed a defense bill in December before leaving office that barred coverage of gender-affirming care for trans children of service members.
The Department of Defense does not publicly report data on the number of transgender people in the military, but a 2016 report from the RAND Corporation estimates that there were anywhere between 2,150 and 10,790 trans people serving in both the active component and selected reserve. The report estimates only a tiny fraction of this population seek out gender-related medical care each year.