Transgender rights advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, challenging an executive order meant to block transgender troops from joining the military. The lawsuit marks the first legal challenge to a key aspect of Trump’s conservative agenda at the Defense Department.
The lawsuit, filed by GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in a federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that the executive order violates the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment. The plaintiffs include six transgender service members and two people seeking to enlist.
“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, one of eight military service member plaintiffs named in the lawsuit.
Trump’s executive order, signed Monday, declared that expressing a gender identity different from one’s biological sex at birth is inconsistent with military standards. It also banned the use of “invented” pronouns within the armed forces.
However, the order left some questions unanswered, such as whether currently serving transgender troops would be allowed to remain in uniform and how removals would be handled if not.
This move represents a continuation of Trump’s previous efforts to restrict transgender service in the military. In 2017, during his first term, Trump announced plans to ban transgender troops entirely, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption.” While his administration froze new transgender recruitment, serving personnel were allowed to remain. Then-President Joe Biden reversed that policy in 2021, allowing transgender people to serve openly.
Transgender rights advocates claim there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members in the U.S. military, though a RAND Corporation study from 2016 found the number to be in the low thousands.
The executive order has drawn sharp criticism from LGBT advocacy groups, rights organizations, and some Democratic lawmakers. The plaintiffs argue in their suit that the order’s provisions are discriminatory and lack any basis in military readiness or cohesion.
This lawsuit comes as Trump faces more legal setbacks against his agenda.
Last week, a Reagan-appointed judge in Washington state issued a temporary restraining order blocking his attempt to end birthright citizenship.
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During a Tuesday press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s actions, saying, “This administration believes in maintaining the highest standards for our military and the constitutionality of its policies, including birthright citizenship.”
During the same press conference, Leavitt reiterated one of Trump’s 300 executive actions from his first week in office, including the administration’s declaration that “It is the policy of this government that, from now on, there are only two genders: male and female.”
