Washington, D.C. – A coalition of legal organizations filed a lawsuit today challenging a recent Trump administration directive that blocks military hospitals from providing medically necessary care to transgender dependents of service members. Teh lawsuit argues the policy illegally restricts access to healthcare and undermines the well-being of military families.
The directive, implemented thru an executive order, prevents military healthcare facilities from offering gender-affirming care – care deemed necessary by doctors and approved by parents – to transgender children and youth of service members. legal advocates contend this abrupt change in policy disregards established medical protocols and places undue hardship on families already navigating the challenges of military life.
“When a servicemember is deployed and focused on the mission they deserve to know their family is taken care of,” stated Sasha Buchert, Staff Attorney at GLAD Law. “This Administration has backtracked on that core promise and put servicemembers at risk of losing access to health care their children desperately need.”
Shannon Minter, Legal Director at NCLR, condemned the action as an overreach of presidential authority. “President Trump has illegally overstepped his authority by abruptly cutting off necessary medical care for military families,” Minter said. “This lawless directive is part of a risky pattern of this administration ignoring legal requirements and abandoning our servicemembers.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, names the Department of Defence as the defendant. Attorneys Sharif Jacob and Liam Brown, partners and associates at Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP respectively, are representing the plaintiffs.
“President Trump’s Executive Order blocks military hospitals from giving transgender youth the care their doctors deem necessary and their parents have approved,” explained Jacob. “Today we filed a lawsuit to put an end to his order, and the agency guidance implementing it.”
Brown added, “This administration is unlawfully targeting military families by denying essential care to their transgender children. We will not stand by while those who serve are stripped of the ability to care for their families.”
This legal challenge is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Trump administration impacting transgender individuals, including attempts to ban transgender people from military service – a policy currently being litigated in a separate case, Talbott v. USA, where GLAD Law and NCLR represent plaintiffs. The administration has faced multiple federal lawsuits over a broader pattern of discriminatory executive orders aimed at limiting the rights of transgender Americans.
details about the case, Doe v. Department of Defense, are available at https://www.gladlaw.org/cases/doe-v-dod/.