Examining the Trump Administration's Transgender Service Ban through an International Human Rights Law Framework
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Examining the Trump Administration's Transgender Service Ban
through an International Human Rights Law Framework
MATTHEW J. LANG'
INTRODUCTION
Six months after his inauguration as President of the United States, in a July
2017 tweet, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced his administration's plan
to ban openly transgender individuals from serving in the United States' Armed
Forces (hereinafter the transgender service ban). This decision reverses a 2016
Obama administration decision permitting openly transgender persons to serve in
the U.S. military.2 Later, Trump formalized his order, issuing a Presidential
Memorandum on August 25, 2017.1 First, the Memorandum indefinitely extends
a prohibition against transgender individuals entering the military, a process
formally referred to as accession .... Second, the Memorandum requires the
military to authorize, by no later than March 23, 2018, the discharge of
transgender service members.4 The memorandum singles out the costs of
providing healthcare to transgender service members as a primary catalyst of the
order, with a specific focus on care related to sexual transition. This memorandum
Copyright @ 2018 by Matthew J. Lang
*J.D. Duke University School of Law, May 2018; B.A. Psychology, Political Science with a Concentration
in Legal Studies, Sociology, Minor Gender Studies, summa cum laude, 2015.
1. Complaint at 2, Karnoski v. Trump (W.D. Wash. 2017) (No. 2:17-cv-1297), http://law
professors.typepad.com/files/karnoski-us_20170828_complaint.pdf See also Derek Hawkins, Trump's
Tweets Come Back to Bite Him in Court Again, This Time in Transgender Military Case, THE WASHINGTON
POST (Oct. 31, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/31/trumps-
tweets-come-back-to-bite-him-in-court-again-this-time-in-transgender-military-
case/?utm term=.418a68aadbf3; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Jul. 26, 2017, 5:55 am),
https://twitter.com/ realdonaldtrump/status/890193981585444864?lang=en (After consultation with
my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept
or allow .. .); Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Jul. 26, 2017, 6:04 am),
https://twitter.com/ realdonaldtrump/status/890196164313833472?lang=en (Transgender individuals to
serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.).
2. Complaint at 2, Karnoski v. Trump (W.D. Wash. 2017) (No. 2:17-cv-1297).
3. Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland
Security, Military Service by Transgender Individuals (Aug. 25, 2017), available at
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/25/presidential-memorandum-secretary-
defense-and-secretary-homeland. (Note that document was not included in the Federal Register).
4. Doe 1 v. Trump, Civil Action No, 17-1597 (CKK), 2017 WL 4873042, 1 (D.D.C. Oct. 30, 2017).
5. See Presidential Memorandum supra note 3, §§ 1 & 2(b) ([T]he previous Administration failed
to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating the Departments' longstanding policy and
practice would not hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military
resources ... Accordingly, ... The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with
respect to the U.S. Coast Guard, shall ... halt all use of DoD or DHS resources to fund sex reassignment
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Examining the Trump Administration's Transgender Service Ban through an International Human Rights Law Framework
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