Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Federal Court Slams Trump Attempted Transgender Ban

Trump with Christofascists in June 2016 at Trump Tower
As part of his promise to Christofascists that he would wage war on the LGBT community, Der Trumpenführer has sought to ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. Military.  This attempted ban would also involve the forced ejection of current transgender members of the military.  Der Trumpenführer's effort has been resisted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now a federal court has unequivocally said "no" to Trump's religious animus based effort.  A piece in the Washington Blade looks at this development that occurred yesterday.  Here are highlights:
In response to a request to clarify a court order against President Trump’s transgender military ban, a federal judge has ruled neither Trump, nor the Pentagon, may delay transgender enlistments any further than a Jan. 1 target date.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, issued the clarification Monday in response to a request from the U.S. Justice Department in the case of Doe v. Trump, the initial lawsuit against the ban filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders.
Mattis issued his memo on June 30 to delay transgender enlistments, which were set to begin at that time as result of a policy change during the Obama administration under Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, until Jan. 1 in response to a request from military service chiefs for more time to implement the policy. (Transgender people currently serving in the armed forces as a result of the Obama-era policy were allowed to stay.) Kollar-Kotelly explains her order intended to revert the military’s policy on transgender troops to the “status quo” before Trump issued his directive banning transgender military service, which means the Mattis memo is now lawful policy. Since Mattis is named defendant in the case, that prohibits him from delaying transgender enlistments any longer than Jan. 1 — the target date in his June 30 memo. At that time, the Trump administration will be required to allow qualified transgender people to enlist into the armed forces. The Justice Department has already appealed Kollar-Kotelly’s order — the first against Trump’s transgender military ban — to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Last week, U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis issued a second order against Trump’s policy as a result of a separate lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The two lawsuits are among four lawsuits filed against Trump’s transgender military ban. Another was filed by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, and another was filed by Equality California.

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