ROTC student takes on transgender military ban

Kohere is plaintiff in lawsuit opposing Trump’s directive

A passion for patriotism has been a constant coursing through Dylan Kohere’s short life.

When he was in the sixth grade, dreams of a military career started to crystallize. In high school, he weighed enlisting after graduation.

The Mount Olive Township, N. J., native eventually decided the smartest path would be college and enrollment in the Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Military service is “the thing I wanted to do, hoped to do my entire life,” he said.

But now Kohere, 18, is on the front lines in a battle he never imagined — as a plaintiff in the first lawsuit challenging President Trump’s directive to reinstate a ban on transgender people serving in the military, a ban that could crush the college freshman’s aspirations.

Late Wednesday, Trump administration lawyers requested that the lawsuit be dismissed, saying it’s too early for courts to block a ban since no policy changes will be effective until at least after January.

The brief also stated that no plaintiffs face a “current or imminent threat” of harm.

For Kohere, the impact of a potential ban is already taking a toll.

“I worked for years to become physically able and ready enough to serve,” said Kohere in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “To be told I couldn’t simply because of how I identify was really frustrating.”

Kohere, who came out as transgender his first year in high school, is only a few months beyond orientation at the Uni-