Transgender service members and rights groups file suit against Trump’s Pentagon directive

A group of transgender service members and rights groups are filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s restrictions on transgender troops in the military. 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of six active duty transgender service members by GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), argues that the new executive order violates the equality guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit says the six transgender service members would lose access to healthcare and retirement benefits as a result of the executive order.

“When you put on the uniform, differences fall away and what matters is your ability to do the job,” said Army 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, named as plaintiff in the suit: Talbott v. Trump. 

The new order, signed by Trump on Monday evening, requires Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to update medical standards to ensure they “prioritize readiness and lethality” and take action to “end the use of invented and identification-based pronouns” within DOD.

​​TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDERS BANNING ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY,’ DEI INITIATIVES IN THE MILITARY

It says that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth does not meet military standards. 

The order also restricts sleeping, changing and bathing facilities by biological sex. It’s not an immediate ban, but a direction for the secretary of Defense to implement such policies. 

It revokes former President Joe Biden’s executive order that the White House argues “allowed for special circumstances to accommodate ‘gender identity’ in the military – to the detriment of military readiness and unit cohesion.”

The categorical ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2014 under President Barack Obama. 

“I’ve been military my entire life. I was born on a military base,” said Navy Ensign Dan Danridge, student flight officer, a plaintiff in the suit. 

DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH SAYS ‘NO MORE DEI AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE’: ‘NO EXCEPTIONS’

“Every day I lace up my boots the same as everybody else. I pass the same tests as everybody else. Being transgender is irrelevant to my service. What matters is that I can complete the tasks that are critical to our mission.”

“I’ve spent more than half my life in the Army, including combat in Afghanistan,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Kate Cole. “Removing qualified transgender soldiers like me means an exodus of experienced personnel who fill key positions and can’t be easily replaced.”

Trump’s new order builds on another directive he issued last week that revoked a Biden-era order allowing transgender people to serve in the military. 

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to reinstate the ban on transgender troops he imposed during his first term. In his inauguration speech, he said he would formally recognize that there are only two genders: male and female.

There are an estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender service members – exact figures are not publicly available.

Between Jan. 1, 2016, and May 14, 2021, the DOD reportedly spent approximately $15 million on providing transgender treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) to 1,892 active duty service members, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

The move comes as part of a campaign taken up by Trump and Hegseth to weed out any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices across the military. And GOP lawmakers successfully included an amendment in their 2025 defense policy bill that bans irreversible transgender care for minors in the military healthcare system.