Judge Rules Military Must Accept Trans Service Members

WASHINGTON, DC — The military must allow transgender people to enlist beginning on Jan. 1 of 2018, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Monday.

This move would come President Trump tweeted out in July that all transgender people would be barred from serving in the military.

The courts have previously blocked the administration's efforts to ban transgender people from the military. Monday's ruling extended that block "indefinitely," citing the "irreparable harm" the policy could do to transgender people.

“The court will not stay its preliminary injunction pending defendants’ appeal,” the judge ruled. “In sum, having carefully considered all of the evidence before it, the court is not persuaded that defendants will be irreparably injured by allowing the accession of transgender individuals into the military beginning on January 1, 2018.”

Read the full ruling.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow... Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," he wrote on Twitter in July. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders sued to block the orders.

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