Embattled American President, Donald Trump was sued twice over his decision to ban transgenders from military service.
It will be recalled that Trump had earlier directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving” and to halt the use of resources to fund “sex-reassignment surgical procedures.”
This had led to outrage and now a couple of suits. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign were the groups who filed in federal courts in Baltimore and Seattle and they claim that Trump’s plan violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.
“This ban not only wrongfully prevents patriotic, talented Americans from serving, it also compromises the safety and security of our country,” Lambda Legal senior attorney Peter Renn said in a statement. “Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving openly, courageously and successfully in the US military for more than a year — not to mention the previous decades when many were forced to serve in silence,”
The groups are seeking for the court to make orders blocking the enforcement of the ban and preventing transgender service members from being discharged, blocked from promotion or denied medical care.
According to the ACLU, the ban is “purely political, reflecting a desire to placate legislators and advisers who bear animus and moral disapproval toward men and women who are transgender.”