GLAAD STATEMENT ON SUPREME COURT RULING ALLOWING BAN ON TRANS MILITARY SERVICE TO GO INTO EFFECT

(New York, NY — May 6, 2025) — Today the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to enforce a ban on allowing transgender people to serve in the military, overturning two lower court decisions.

GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) issued the following statement:
“Today’s news is a disgrace for all Americans, especially transgender service members who have been serving openly and honorably for many years. Allowing this discriminatory ban to go into effect is out of step with the views of the American people, compromises military readiness, and will make America less safe. America’s brave service members and their families deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Research shows that Trump’s previous ban on trans service had a negative impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, and national security. 56 generals, admirals, and other leaders from every service branch condemned Trump’s previous efforts to bar open service, noting it would “degrade readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.”

In an opinion issued in March, U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes stated that “thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed—some risking their lives—to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them.” Judge Reyes held that banning transgender service members from the military violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution because it is discrimination based on transgender status and sex; and because “it is soaked in animus.”Judge Reyes continued: “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”

Other executive orders by Trump attempting to end birthright citizenship, to erase transgender people administratively under federal law, to ban lifesaving health care for transgender youth under 19, and to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs have all been challenged and struck down by federal courts so far.