On July 26, 2017, President Trump announced on Twitter that “the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” This was a dramatic and abrupt change in policy, because the military had previously conducted an extensive review and announced in June 2016 that transgender people should be allowed to serve openly. Numerous retired generals and admirals warned that the policy change would harm the military.

Then, on August 27, 2017, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum, directing the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to return to the military’s policy authorizing the discharge of openly transgender service members; to prohibit openly transgender people from joining the military; and to prohibit the funding of transition-related surgical care for transgender service members.

Implementation of President Trump’s policy has been preliminarily enjoined by various federal courts, including in Karnoski v. Trump, the challenge brought by Lambda Legal and Outserve-SLDN.

The federal government initially appealed the lower courts’ preliminary injunction orders, but it voluntarily withdrew those appeals.

Currently, President Trump’s discriminatory policy has been blocked and is not in effect pending resolution of the cases.