Two civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service personnel in the United States Armed Forces.
The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal, along with Seattle-headquartered law firm Perkins Coie, brought the constitutional challenge in response to an executive order Trump issued last week that alleged transgender people should not be allowed to serve because their gender identity is “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
As many as 15,000 troops are transgender, according to a survey of active duty and reserve military personnel, meaning Trump’s order could deprive the armed forces of thousands of capable members at a time when recruitment numbers have fallen to crisis-level lows.
“This discriminatory ban is a threat to our national security, wastes years of training and financial investments, and is unconstitutional, Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of legal, said in a statement. “Our military must be able to recruit the best candidates, retain the highly-trained servicemembers, and every qualified patriot should be able to serve free of discrimination.”
The lawsuit, launched in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, was filed on behalf of seven active transgender troops, one transgender person who wants to enlist, and the Seattle-based civil rights organization Gender Justice League.
“By categorically excluding transgender people, the 2025 Military Ban and related federal policy and directives violate the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment and the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment,” the lawsuit reads. “They lack any legitimate or rational justification, let alone the compelling and exceedingly persuasive ones required. Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek declaratory, and preliminary and permanent injunctive, relief.”
The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda pledged to sue last week after Trump’s executive order.
“The assertion that transgender service members like myself are inherently untrustworthy or lack honor is an insult to all who have dedicated their lives to defending this country,” said Emily Shilling, a Naval commander with 19 years of service and one of the plaintiffs, in a statement.
“My nearly two decades of service as a naval aviator and test pilot, routinely selected for the most challenging leadership roles, with 60 combat missions and over 1,700 flight hours in high-performance jets, speaks for itself.”
In 2017, during his first term, Trump also moved to ban transgender troops from the military, announcing the move in a series of tweets that even caught the Pentagon off guard.
The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal also sued to block that policy, which the Supreme Court allowed to be implemented while challenges to the ban made their way through the legal system.
Former President Joe Biden rescinded the policy shortly after taking office in 2021.
A government-commissioned study by the RAND Corporation, published in 2016, found that allowing transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces had no “effect on operational effectiveness, operational readiness or cohesion.”
Since the beginning of his second term last month, Trump has launched a sustained offensive on transgender rights.
On Wednesday, he signed an executive order banning transgender women from competing in female sports competitions. At the White House, he said “the radical left has waged an all out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.”
On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an order that said the government will recognize male and female as the only two sexes, adding they are “not changeable.”
He also issued an order to halt federal support for gender-affirming care for trans people under 19. Seven families with transgender or nonbinary children filed a lawsuit challenging that order Tuesday.
