A new executive order from President Donald Trump ordering the Pentagon to again ban transgender people from military service was met with its first legal challenge Tuesday.
GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed suit in federal court on behalf of eight service members challenging Trump's order and asking for an injunction.
The plaintiffs claim the ban is unconstitutional and violates the Fifth Amendment.
Sam Rodriguez is a 2nd class petty officer in the U.S. Navy currently stationed in San Diego and was recently selected for an officer's commission in the Navy's medical corps. They identify as nonbinary.
Rodriguez said the new ban casts doubt on their family's future.
"If a ban came across and I lost my job ... that takes food off my kid's table, that takes my housing away, that puts me and my spouse in a situation ..." Rodriguez told KPBS Tuesday. "I don't have a job lined up."
Rodriguez is one of the estimated 15,000-25,000 trans people currently serving in the U.S. military. They are a member of SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit group that advocates for trans service members and veterans.
Rodriguez said over their nine years in the Navy, they'd found service perfectly compatible with their gender identity.
"As a whole, it's not a hostile environment at all," Rodriguez said. "We show up, we do our job. We're treated just like any other service member."
The Trump Administration disagrees. In the executive order signed late Monday, Trump argues that anyone expressing a gender identity divergent from their assigned sex at birth "cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."
The executive order goes further, claiming gender expression outside of one's assigned sex at birth is not consistent with the "humility and selflessness required of a service member."
"Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life," the order said.
Rodriguez said trans people are held to the same standards as everyone else.
"We show up every single day (in) positions from across every career field and we contribute to the military," they said. "We demonstrate merit, meeting rigorous standards (in) our performance and leadership and expertise in our jobs."
Civil rights groups denounced the order. Rachel Branaman, the executive director of the Modern Military Association of America — an LGBTQ+ military and veteran advocacy group — vowed to fight the ban.
“Trans people have served in every conflict since the Revolutionary War, and have been serving openly for almost a decade with honor and integrity in every theater across the globe," Branaman said in a statement. "The trans ban was wrong in 2019, it’s wrong now, and so has every other attempt to discriminate against minority populations who serve and protect our country."
Lamda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign said they will also file suit to stop the ban.
A similar suit during Trump's first term prevented the ban from being enforced for two years until a court allowed it to be enacted in 2019. President Joe Biden rescinded the ban in 2021 before the courts issued a final ruling on the legality of the ban.
The Pentagon has 60 day to change its policy.
