ROTC student takes on transgender ban
18-year-old joins lawsuit opposing Trump’s order
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 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 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 a few months beyond orientation at the University of New Haven in West Haven, Conn. Instead of dealing with the ebbs and flows of the freshman experience, he is mired in uncertainty over whether he will be able to complete his ROTC program or enter the military.
“Dylan has a tremendously powerful voice,” said Jennifer Levi, transgender rights project director for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). “His example makes it obvious how deep and scarring this ban could be.”
Transgender troops have been able to serve openly since the Obama administration lifted a ban in 2016. In July, Trump said via Twitter — then in an order to the Pentagon — that he intended to overturn that policy. The U.S. military, he said, “must be fo- cused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
The order outraged LGBT activists and caught many by surprise, including military officials. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said later that transgender troops would be allowed to serve, pending the results of a study.
Supporters of a ban point to the medical costs, but a report by the non-partisan RAND Corp. found that paying for transgender troops’ health care needs would amount to about $8 million a year and the consequences on military readiness would be negligible.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLAD answered by filing the first suit Aug. 9 (other suits have been filed since) on behalf of five transgender service members. Kohere and a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman joined as plaintiffs Aug. 31.
Kohere puts a face on a potential casualty of a ban: young peo- ple determined to join the armed forces.
“It is heartbreaking to see Dylan at such a young age in a terrible situation for no reason,” said Shannon Minter, NCLR’s legal director. “Why in the world wouldn’t the president and U.S. military want to welcome and embrace an idealistic young person who wants nothing more than to serve his country?”
Many young people enlist as a “route to stability,” Minter said. Others come from families with deep military traditions. Many take the ROTC route. “There are many more Dylans out there,” he said.
The Army ROTC has 275 programs at colleges and universities throughout the USA, Puerto Rico and Guam and an enrollment of more than 30,000, according to the U.S. Army Cadet Command. More than 40% of active-duty Army officers were commissioned through the ROTC.
A transgender ban would “create a huge, destructive mess” on campuses, Minter said, thrusting schools back into the don’t ask/ don’t tell era.
A ban would conflict with states that have laws prohibiting bias based on gender identity and could lead to the demise of ROTC programs that did not want to be forced to embrace discriminatory practices, Minter said.
Kohere loved going camping and doing other “guy” things with his two older brothers when he was a kid.
“I always wanted to do what the Boy Scouts did even though I was in the Girl Scouts,” Kohere said. Still, “I never thought of myself as a guy trapped inside a girl’s body. I never had a concept of gender.”
People accepted his gender non-conformity, he said, until middle school when he was bullied. In high school, Kohere had what he calls “an epiphany.” He became a member of the school’s Gay- Straight Alliance, and at his very first GSA meeting, transgender issues were discussed.
“That’s pretty much where the lightbulb went off,” Kohere said. “I was no longer confused about being myself.”
Danielle Kay, Kohere’s GSA adviser at Mount Olive High School, recalled a student with lots of “tenacity” who eventually became president of the group and shined as a role model and leader whom other students admired.
Kohere’s two grandfathers served in World War II, and though their service played a part in the appeal of the armed forces, he chose his career path “on my own.” Even though he was just a tot when 9/11 shook the country, reverberations through the years cemented an enduring respect for the U.S. military.
“I grew up being protected for 18 years of my life,” he said. “I feel obligated to return the favor. I have always been a very patriotic person.”
His future hangs in the balance in college and beyond.
If he could meet the president, “I would tell him to look at me as a person,” Kohere said. “I identify as an American; it’s always been that way. I still want to fight for my country.”
“I identify as an American; it’s always been that way. I still want to fight for my country.”
Dylan Kohere,
ROTC student