A federal court in Washington is barring President Trump from changing the government's policy on military service by transgender people, the AP reports. Trump announced in an August memo that he intended to reverse course on a 2016 policy that allowed troops to serve openly as transgender individuals. He said he would order a return to the policy prior to June 2016, under which service members could be discharged for being transgender. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote Monday that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit and barred the Trump administration from reversing course.
"There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effect on the military at all," Kollar-Kotelly wrote, per Bloomberg. "In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects." Per Reuters, however, Kollar-Kotelly did rebuff the plaintiffs' complaint against Trump's directive that government funds can't be used for sex-reassignment surgery for most active-duty service members. She noted in her ruling that the plaintiffs hadn't proved they'd be negatively affected by that restriction.
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