Supreme Court Allows Trump's Transgender Military Ban To Continue

Source: Ken Cedeno / Getty

The Ban Continues While Smaller Courts Hash It Out

It seems 45’s musty move of banning transgender people from the military is being allowed thanks to the Supreme Court.

According to CNN, the highest court has allowed Trump’s ban to go into effect on Tuesday. The Justices have not ruled on the merits of the case, thus they’ll let the ban go forward while the lower courts sort it out. Four liberal justices on the Court objected to Trump’s policy that could deal a big blow to the transgender community.

Trump first announced the policy in July 2017 on Twitter, which sparked major outrage. According to Vox, it was set to go into effect in March 2018, however federal courts halted the ban, believing in part that trans service members who challenged the policy were most likely to prevail. The federal courts ruling allowed openly trans service members to join the military starting on January 1, 2018, and the military has already covered the costs for some trans-inclusive medical services, including gender-affirming surgeries.

However, in March 2018, the Trump administration amended their little ban, saying “transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria (a state of emotional distress caused by how someone’s body or the gender they were assigned at birth goes against their gender identity) are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.” The amendment includes people who have already transitioned through surgery. People without gender dysphoria can serve, but only if they do so under the sex they were assigned at birth.

The Trump administration has been using the medical costs of transgender people as an excuse for the ban, despite the costs being relatively low in comparison to the military’s larger budget.

These minor medical costs, which might include medications along with surgery, could help reduce gender dysphoria. If untreated, gender dysphoria could lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide among those who experience it.