A U.S. district judge has blocked the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, suggesting the order was hostile and discriminatory.
On Tuesday night, Judge Ana Reyes, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a preliminary injunction against the ban that blocks it from taking effect while both sides argue the case in court. She delayed the order until Friday to give the administration time to appeal.
Reyes ruled that the ban likely violates trans service members’ constitutional rights.
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“The Military Ban is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext,” she wrote. “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded Biden-era policies that allowed transgender people to serve openly in the military. A week later, he instructed the Department of Defense to update its guidance on trans military service. The agency announced new policies for dismissing trans service members in late February.
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The Trump administration had argued that trangender service members hurt the military’s lethality and readiness. LGBTQ+ rights groups GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights sued the administration over the policy. In a hearing, Reyes suggested the government’s argument was ripe with “unadulterated animus” or categorical hostility to transgender people.
Jennifer Levi, GLAD Law senior director of transgender and queer rights, said in a statement that Reyes’ “decisive” ruling speaks volumes.
“The Court’s unambiguous factual findings lay bare how this ban specifically targets and undermines our courageous service members who have committed themselves to defending our nation. Given the Court’s clear-eyed assessment, we are confident this ruling will stand strong on appeal,” Levi said.
The injunction comes just a day after the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it was cutting off gender-affirming care to transgender veterans. That policy was announced in response to an executive order Trump made proclaiming the federal government would only recognize two genders.
Transgender people are historically twice as likely to serve in the military as their cisgender peers, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. The military is the largest employer in the nation. A transgender service ban would effectively amount to one of the largest layoffs of transgender workers in history.
