Shortly after President Donald Trump
signed a memo directing the Pentagon to implement his ban on
transgender troops, two LGBT groups announced they're suing the
administration.
The White House issued the guidance on
Friday, roughly a month after the president called for completely
barring transgender people from serving in the military.
Trump's guidance directs the military
to bar transgender people from entering the military and stop paying
for the transition-related health care of active duty transgender
troops, but stops short of banning transgender troops, leaving the
decision of what the military should do about active-duty transgender
troops to military leaders.
(Related: Trump
directs Pentagon to ban transgender recruits.)
Two groups, the National Center for
Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD),
have already filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban. Two
additional groups, OutServe-SLDN and Lambda Legal, said that they
would file their suit on Monday.
“We will be suing. On Monday,”
Lambda Legal wrote in a
Facebook post.
“Our legal team is full of incredible
people who have been working round the clock for the past month+ (and
even before then!) on this. They're some of the most brilliant legal
minds not just in this country, but in the world. Seriously. If
you're a current or future trans service member, or vet, know that
you are in good hands (or brains) with us. Just wait until you read
that brief on Monday.”
“We haven't slept a lot over the past
few months, and even less-so since President Trump's tweets about
this last month. But it's okay. We do what we do because we truly
believe in this country's founding principles of equality and justice
– and because we KNOW with 100% certainty that LGBTQ people, queer
people, people living with HIV and everyone who is a part of our many
beautiful communities deserves to live with dignity just as much as
anyone else. The sleep deprivation is worth it because we know that
we fight for what is right.”
“We fight for love,” the group
added.