WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, like, did a thing and now the Trump administration can kick out a bunch of transgender peeps in the military. The justices were all like, “Sure, go ahead,” in response to an appeal from Trump’s peeps. Some judges were all, “Nah, we ain’t down with that,” but the higher-ups were like, “Sorry, gotta do what we gotta do.” The liberal justices were like, “Um, we don’t agree,” but the majority ruled in favor of the new policy set by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trans rights advocates are calling it a “purge” of active-duty troops who were just doing their thang. Trump and Hegseth were all, “Yo, if you got gender dysphoria, you gotta go.” They said it was about maintaining high standards in the military. Some peeps estimate there are over 15,000 transgender folks currently serving, but the new policy affects around 4,240 of them.
Not really sure why this matters, but Trump complained about a “radical gender ideology” infecting the armed forces when he took office. He wanted to make sure everyone in the military met his standards of readiness and all that jazz. Seven transgender service members were like, “Yo, that ain’t cool,” and sued. One of them, Cmdr. Emily Shilling, has been serving in the Navy for almost two decades and has done some serious combat missions. She transitioned while in the Navy under Biden’s policy, but now she’s facing the boot under Trump’s new rules. The judges in Seattle were like, “This ain’t right,” and ruled in favor of the service members, saying the ban was based on “animus” and outdated concerns. They also pointed out that there was no evidence that having transgender peeps in the military affected readiness or unit cohesion.
The Trump administration was all, “Nah, you can’t tell us what to do,” and asked the Supreme Court to step in. They argued that it’s the Executive Branch’s job to decide who can serve in the military, not the judges. They also claimed that troops with gender dysphoria are more likely to be non-deployable and need costly medical care. The transgender peeps were like, “Hold up, let’s keep things as they are until the lower courts figure this out.” They argued that having openly transgender folks in the military has actually improved readiness and unit cohesion.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates were not happy with the new policy. They called it a “purge” and said it was unprecedented to kick out thousands of current service members for reasons unrelated to their ability to serve. One advocate said, “This type of mass purge has never before happened in our nation’s history.” So yeah, things are getting pretty messy in the military right now, and it’s not really clear how it’s all gonna play out. But hey, that’s the news for ya.
