Washington among 21 states fighting Trump’s transgender military ban

President Donald Trump’s decision to bar transgender people from U.S. military service has met the wrath of attorneys general across 21 states — including Washington Attorney General Nick Brown.

The group of attorneys general argued this decision undermines both state and national security. A brief was filed Wednesday in support of personnel who filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the order.

The president’s order “not only violates the Constitution … but will also weaken our nation’s military, including the National Guard, and undermine the Amici States’ institutions and efforts to protect their communities,” the brief, co-written by Brown, read.

The other 20 attorneys general working alongside Brown to overturn this decision represent Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

The brief was filed in Shilling v. Trump, a lawsuit brought forward by U.S. Navy Commander Emily Shilling- a military veteran of more than 20 years who is also transgender. Shilling flew more than 60 combat and high-risk missions and wants to continue working for the American public.

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Trump’s transgender ban for the military

In his order, Trump claimed that service by troops who identify as a gender other than their biological one “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness, according to The Associated Press, requiring a revised policy to address the matter.

Trump’s policy has two exceptions: If transgender personnel who seek to enlist can prove on a case-by-case basis that they directly support warfighting activities, or if an existing service member, who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, can prove they support a specific warfighting need and never transitioned to the gender they identify with and proves over 36 months they are stable in their biological sex “without clinically significant distress.”

Due to medical privacy laws, the U.S. military can not reveal the exact count of transgender troops, but, according to a 2018 independent study by the Palm Center obtained by The Associated Press, estimated there were 14,000 transgender troops among the more than 2 million troops actively serving.

Trump initially tried to ban transgender troops during his first term, but it was tangled up in the courts for years before being overturned by then-President Joe Biden shortly after he took office.

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Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can email him here.