WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Washington blocked the Trump administration Monday from enforcing parts of its transgender military ban.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly held that the plaintiffs “have established that they will be injured by these directives, due both to the inherent inequality they impose, and the risk of discharge and denial of accession that they engender. ”
She blocked provisions having to do with accession and retention directives — meaning directives concerning joining and retaining military personnel.
In August, Trump directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving.
The presidential memorandum banned the Department of Defense from using its resources to provide medical treatment regimens for transgender individuals currently serving in the military.
Trump also directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,” a White House official said.
