How Trumps Trans Military Ban Backfired. Spectacularly.

How Trump’s Trans Military Ban Backfired. Spectacularly.
The president’s efforts to implement a ban on transgender troops has met all-round criticism, as well as defeat in the courts. He may have only helped the cause of trans equality.
Samantha Allen
04.22.18 12:11 AM ET


Even by Trumpian standards, the transgender troop ban has been a colossal failure.

Ever since July 2017, when Trump acceded to the religious right and tweeted a ban on transgender military service without consulting military leaders first, the administration has been dealt blow after blow, suffering two major defeats in the past week alone.

On April 13, a district court in Washington State reaffirmed its prior injunction on Trump’s transgender troop ban, writing that it “specifically targets one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, and must satisfy strict scrutiny if it is to survive.”



On April 18, district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly—who had previously issued one of the four injunctions against the transgender troop ban last year—denied the Trump administration’s motion for a protective order in one of the ongoing legal challenges, ruling that discovery in the case would continue. The Trump administration now has a May 15 deadline to turn over “responsive, non-privileged documents” related to the ban.

Last year, Time predicted that the ban “may backfire politically.” By now, it already has.

Not only will LGBT advocates win the war over transgender military service; they will come away from it with a pile of legal rulings in their favor and more Republican allies on the issue than ever.

Indeed, by trying to hurt the transgender rights movement at a crucial and vulnerable moment, the Trump administration will only help speed it along.


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