By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
LGBTQ+ military contingent in the San Diego Pride Parade in 2017
They filed the suit on behalf of six trans service members, one aspiring enlistee, and the Gender Justice League.
Six transgender service members, an aspiring enlistee, and Gender Justice League have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to bar trans people from the military.
The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, based in Seattle. The plaintiffs are represented by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (the HRC’s educational and research arm) and Lambda Legal. Trump is named as a defendant, along with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other military officials. HRC and Lambda Legal had previously announced plans to sue.
The order, issued January 27, directs Hegseth “to adopt and execute a policy establishing that a person being transgender is incompatible with military service, thereby preventing existing service members who are transgender from continuing to serve and preventing transgender people from enlisting in, or acceding to, the armed forces in the future,” the suit notes. It directs Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to do the same for the Coast Guard.
“There are currently thousands of transgender people selflessly and patriotically serving in our Nation’s armed services across myriad roles, and many others seek to follow the same noble path,” the suit states. “Transgender service members take the same oath as every other service member to serve our Nation and place themselves in harm’s way — potentially paying the ultimate price — in service of our Country. And to be clear, our country needs ready, able, and willing service members to stand up and protect our freedoms. But the 2025 Military Ban turns them away and kicks them out — for no legitimate reason. Rather, it baselessly declares all transgender people unfit to serve, insults and demeans them, and cruelly describes every one of them as incapable of ‘an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,’ based solely because they are transgender. These assertions are, of course, false.”
“The 2025 Military Ban and related federal policy and directives violate the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment and the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment,” it continues. “They lack any legitimate or rational justification, let alone the compelling and exceedingly persuasive ones required.” The suit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions blocking the ban.
The plantiffs are U.S. Navy Cmdrs. Emily “Hawking” Shilling and Blake Dremann, both of whom have 19 years of service; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Geirid Morgan, with 14 years of service; Army Sgt. First Class Cathrine “Katie” Schmid, with 20 years of service; Army Sgt. First Class Jane Doe, with 17 years of service; Air Force Staff Sgt. Videl Leins, with 16 years of service; Matthew Medina, who seeks to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps; and Gender Justice League, a civil and human rights organization.
“This discriminatory ban is a threat to our national security, wastes years of training and financial investments, and is unconstitutional,” Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at the HRC Foundation, said in a press release. “Thousands of transgender servicemembers have already met the military’s rigorous standards and more than proven themselves. Our military must be able to recruit the best candidates, retain the highly trained servicemembers, and every qualified patriot should be able to serve free of discrimination. Thank you to the courageous plaintiffs who have already sacrificed so much for this country, and now are fighting to continue their service in the face of a cruel and dangerous ban.”
“This ban not only wrongfully prevents patriotic, talented Americans from serving, it also compromises the safety and security of our country,” added Sasha Buchert, counsel and Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project director at Lambda Legal. “Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving courageously and successfully in the U.S. military. Once again attacking a vulnerable population based on bias, political opportunism and demonstrably untrue ‘alternative facts,’ President Trump is seeking to deny courageous transgender people the opportunity to serve our country. He’s got to get through us first.”
“The assertion that transgender service members like myself are inherently untrustworthy or lack honor is an insult to all who have dedicated their lives to defending this country,” said Shilling, speaking in her personal capacity; her views and opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Navy or Department of Defense. “My nearly two decades of service as a naval aviator and test pilot, routinely selected for the most challenging leadership roles, with 60 combat missions and over 1,700 flight hours in high-performance jets, speaks for itself. I have been selected for promotion and ranked number one in my community for merit. Not because of my identity, our boards are deliberately blind to such things, but because my performance and leadership set me apart. What greater proof of merit is required? This ban is not about readiness or cohesion, and it is certainly not about merit. It is about exclusion and betrayal, purposely targeting those of us who volunteered to serve, simply for having the courage and integrity to live our truth.”
“This Executive Order is nothing more than just a discriminatory attack against transgender individuals like myself and many others to paint us as the problem in today's world and keep everyone else distracted from the actual problems at hand like mental health, veteran benefits and many more,” said Medina. “I cannot stand for this blatant exploitation of human rights to go on any further and I will not be shamed for my identity. I am human first like everyone else and should only be seen for my humanity.”
There has never been a federal law barring trans people from military service, but until 2016, policies at the Department of Defense and the armed forces kept them from serving openly, although many served in the closet. In 2016, during President Barack Obama’s administration, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter enacted a policy that allowed them to serve openly.
Trump had announced his first-term ban via Twitter in July 2017, claiming that allowing trans people to serve openly interfered with military readiness and that their health care was too costly for the government to support. Numerous studies have contradicted such claims. After extensive litigation from opponents, the ban took effect in 2019. There was not a mass discharge of the thousands of trans people who were already serving, as most of them were considered “grandfathered” in, but new enlistments of trans people were blocked. President Joe Biden lifted the ban shortly after he took office in 2021,
