In the US, a federal judge on Tuesday banned President Donald Trump's administration from banning transgender people from serving in the military, The New York Times reports, writes UNN.
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In a written opinion criticizing the president's efforts, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued an injunction allowing transgender service members to continue serving in the military under rules established by the Joe Biden administration, pending a decision on their lawsuit against the Trump administration ban.
"The ban below contains demeaning language aimed at a vulnerable group, violating the Fifth Amendment," Judge Reyes wrote.
The government argued that courts should defer to the military's decision, but in a 79-page ruling, the judge said the government created the ban based on virtually no evidence and that "the law does not require a court to automatically approve illogical decisions based on assumptions".
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According to the US Department of Defense, about 4,200 service members, or about 0.2 percent of the military, are transgender. They include pilots, senior officers, nuclear scientists and Green Berets, as well as enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order saying that transgender soldiers had impressed the military with "radical gender ideology" and that "accepting a gender identity inconsistent with a person's sex is contrary to a soldier's obligation to lead an honest, truthful and disciplined life, even in his personal life".
In February, the US Department of Defense released a new policy that included the same language and said that all transgender soldiers, regardless of merit, would be forced to leave the military.
Several service members immediately filed lawsuits, claiming that the policy was illegal discrimination that violated their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
