In anticipation of a new transgender military policy announcement from the Trump Administration later this month, the American Military Partner Association (AMPA) — the nation’s largest organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) military spouses, families, and allies — released the following statement. As reported by BuzzFeed News, “Justice Department lawyers have told a federal judge that they will be defending a new policy regarding transgender military service that will be ‘disclosed’ by the Trump administration on Feb. 21, the federal judge wrote in an order this week.”
“Enough already. Let them serve,” said AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack. “This administration is wasting so much time and precious resources trying to discriminate against troops who have already proven over and over again that what matters is their ability to accomplish the mission — not their gender identity. It’s far past time the Trump administration abandon its reckless ban and start supporting ALL of the brave men and women who serve our nation — including those who happen to be transgender.”
Courts have so far blocked the President from reinstating a transgender military ban. AMPA is an organizational plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging the ban — Karnoski v. Trump, brought by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN on behalf of nine individuals, AMPA, the Human Rights Campaign, and Gender Justice League. Estimates show there are thousands of transgender troops currently serving, and on January 1, 2018, the military began accepting new qualified transgender recruits into the Armed Forces — due to court decisions blocking Trump’s ban.
The far majority of Americans believe transgender people should be allowed to serve, and the bipartisan outrage over the President’s ban was swift and severe. 56 retired generals and admirals warned that the ban would degrade military readiness. The American Medical Association (AMA) has made clear there is no medical rationale for banning transgender people from the military.
