LGBT law groups suing the Trump
administration over its ban on transgender troops say the government
is distorting evidence to prevent transgender people from enlisting
in the military.
On Friday, the National Center for
Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders
(GLAD) filed their opposition to the administration's request to
delay the January 1, 2018 effective date for transgender people to
enlist in the military. The government argues that the military is
not ready to accept transgender recruits and that it would be
unproductive to accept transgender recruits considering its stated
goal of prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military.
(Related: Trump
administration seeks to delay transgender people from enlisting in
military.)
“Trump administration claims that our
highly sophisticated and capable military is unprepared to implement
a minor policy change after years of preparation are simply not
credible,” said NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter. “The military
has studied this issue extensively and determined that permitting
qualified transgender people to enlist and serve will only strengthen
our nation’s armed forces.”
“This question has been asked and
answered already by this Court,” said GLAD Transgender Rights
Project Director Jennifer Levi. “The military has had nearly a year
and a half to be ready to implement an enlistment policy its own
leaders created and adopted. It strains credulity to argue it is not
prepared to do so. It’s time to move forward and allow enlistment
by qualified transgender Americans who wish to serve.”
In their filing, GLAD and NCLR cited a
Palm Center policy report that calls out the Trump administration for
filing a court document that “rewrites the history of transgender
military policy and distorts the evidence” about transgender
service.
In the policy report, titled Military
Professors Refute Trump Administration Assertion that Armed Forces
Are Not Ready for Transgender Recruits, a panel of six
current and former military professors challenge the claim that the
Pentagon is unprepared to admit transgender applicants.
The case is one of four challenging the
president's ban. Oral arguments in Stockman v. Trump, a
federal lawsuit filed in California, are scheduled for Monday,
December 11.