ACLU sues Trump over transgender ban for military
Transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen and other members of the military, along with others who want to enlist, sued President Donald Trump on Monday, hoping the federal courts will stop him from preventing their service.
One federal lawsuit was filed in Baltimore by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland on behalf of six transgender individuals currently serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Naval Reserve.
Another was filed in Seattle by Lambda Legal, on behalf of a 12-year Army veteran and two young transgender men who hope to enlist, along with Human Rights Campaign and the Gender Justice League.
“I thought the Army would make a man of me,” joked Army Staff Sgt. Cathrine Schmid, 33, who is stationed at Joint Base LewisMcChord near Tacoma, Washington, and is a plaintiff in the Seattle case. “We see how effective that was.”
Schmid, who has served in South Korea, Germany and Iraq, claims that Trump’s ban on transgender people joining the military has halted her appointment as a warrant officer.
“President Trump’s actions immediately caused the individual plaintiffs and other transgender service members to fear for their careers, the well-being of their family members and dependents, their health care and, in some cases, their safety,” the ACLU lawsuit states.
Trump directed the Pentagon on Friday to implement a ban on transgender individuals from enlisting in or continuing to serve in the military, which he first announced in a tweet.
The ban, which would take effect next year, also orders a halt to the use of Defense Department resources to fund sex-reassignment surgeries for military personnel, except if needed to protect the health of an individual who already has begun a course of sex-reassignment treatment.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump tweeted.
The ACLU plaintiffs, who claim they face immediate and irreparable harm, are asking the court to declare the ban invalid as an unconstitutional violation of their rights to equal treatment and due process.
Two weeks after Trump initially announced the ban, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights sued in Washington, D.C., on behalf of five transgender service members with nearly 60 years of combined military service.
The ACLU complaint calls the new policy a betrayal to existing service members who came out publicly to military personnel following a directive issued last year by President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, Ashton Carter. That “open service” directive stated that no otherwise qualified service member could be discharged or denied re-enlistment solely because of his or her gender identity.
The ACLU claims the administration has provided no evidence to justify the reversal in policy, which has been criticized by some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Scott Taylor of Virginia, a former Navy SEAL, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a former Vietnam prisoner of war.
The ACLU says an estimated 8,800 or more transgender people currently serve in the military, and asserts that Trump’s concerns about military preparedness, unit cohesion and medical costs are baseless.
SINGAPORE — Divers have recovered the remains of all 10 sailors who went missing after the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore last week, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
Navy and Marine Corps divers had been searching in flooded compartments of the destroyer for days after the damaged ship docked in Singapore. The cause of the Aug. 21 collision is under investigation.
The crash ripped a gash in the McCain’s hull, flooding crew berths and machinery and communications rooms.
The commander of the Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet was fired last week after a series of accidents this year raised questions about its operations. The firing of Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, a three-star admiral, was a rare dismissal of a high-ranking officer for operational reasons.
The Navy also ordered an operational pause for its fleets worldwide to make sure all steps are being taken to ensure safe and effective operations. The Pacific Fleet will also carry out a ship-by-ship review of its vessels, looking at navigation, mechanical systems, bridge resource management and training.
The victims ranged in age from 20 to 39 years old and came from eight U.S. states:
— Charles Nathan Findley, 31, Electronics Technician 1st Class, from Amazonia, Missouri
— Abraham Lopez, 39, Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class, from El Paso, Texas
— Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, Electronics Technician 2nd Class, from Gaithersburg, Maryland
— Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, Electronics Technician 2nd Class, from Cable, Ohio
— Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Manchester, Maryland
— Corey George Ingram, 28, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Poughkeepsie, New York
— Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Suffield, Connecticut
— John Henry Hoagland III, 20, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Killeen, Texas
— Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class, from Decatur, Illinois
— Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey