One of the largest LGBT+ legal organisations in the US has vowed to take on President Trump if his proposed transgender military ban is made into law.
The US President tweeted on July 26 that transgender people would no longer be able to serve “in any capacity” in the armed forces, citing medical costs and “disruption”.
When the tweets went viral, the Pentagon noted that it had not received official direction on the matter—and top military officials have the proposal.
However, the reports that a policy—A Guidance Policy for Open Transgender Service Phase Out”—has been hurriedly prepared by the White House while President Trump is on a 17-day holiday in New Jersey.
A source told the LA Blade that: “the administration wants to get rid of transgender service members as fast as they can.”
In response, Lambda Legal has warned that they will be suing Trump over the ban in a written by the organisation’s staff attorney and transgender military veteran Sasha Buchert.
“I am a transgender military veteran,” Buchert writes.
“The move to purge transgender military personnel is dishonourable to the thousands of transgender men and women who are serving our country with courage and who are integral parts of our armed services.
“The safety of all service members - transgender or not - is undermined by a policy like this that distracts from the important missions they have for no valid reason.
“It is also a slap in the face of the leadership who have worked diligently to develop and implement the current policy which has been in place for more than a year without incident.”
Buchert continues on to say that the ban has been widely criticised—by Republicans, Democrats and more than 56 retired generals and admirals.
“This mean-spirited and discriminatory attack on our community is capricious, irrational and clearly driven by anti-LGBT forces in the administration who care more about harming transgender people than keeping our nation safe. It is clearly unconstitutional.
“Lambda Legal has a long history of fighting for LGBT service members and, teaming up with OutServe-SLDN, we’re more than ready to fight like hell again. See you in court, President Trump.”
The policy is now expected to be handed to the US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis. He was on holidays when President Trump’s tweets were uploaded but was reportedly “appalled” by the move, the
More than 50 House Democrats have written to Mattis—as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford—urging them not to comply with the anti-transgender policy.
“As members of Congress with an abiding interest in our nation’s military and its policies towards the LGBTQ community, we write to not only express our strong opposition to President Trump’s recent tweets seeking to ban transgender individuals from the military, but to remind you not to comply with any unconstitutional directive which may ultimately be issued,” .
“As the respected leaders of our brave armed service members, you have no obligation to implement a hastily considered tweet designed to serve as a “wedge” political issue; but rather you should honour your own independent duty to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
“We believe any serious or credible review of the law and the facts in the present case make it clear that the President’s proposed ban on transgender people serving in the Armed Forces will weaken, not strengthen our military, and is blatantly unconstitutional."
