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(CNSNews.com) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) put out a statement on Saturday criticizing President Donald Trump’s move to ask the Supreme Court to uphold his ban on some transgenders serving in the military and said that Trump’s ban “weakens our military readiness and our country.”
“This bigoted ban weakens our military readiness and our country, and shows this president’s stunning lack of loyalty to those who risk all to defend our freedoms,” Pelosi said.
U.S. District Courts in California, Washington state and the District of Columbia have issued injunctions blocking the Trump Defense Department’s policy from taking effect and the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has already heard arguments in a case against the policy. On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to take up the cases immediately.
Trump first announced the policy on July 26 ,2017.
“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump said then. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail.”
In February 2018, following up on Trump’s statement, Defense Secretary James Mattis issued a Defense Department policy that allowed transgenders to serve in the military, as long as they served in their biological sex and did not suffer from a mental condition called “gender dysphoria.”
“Under the Mattis policy—as under the [Obama Defense Secretary Ash] Carter policy—transgender individuals without a history of gender dysphoria would be required to serve in their biological sex, whereas individuals with a history of gender dysphoria would be presumptively disqualified from service,” say the DOJ petition to the Supreme Court.
“Under the Mattis accession standards, individuals with a history of gender dysphoria would be permitted to join the military if they have not undergone gender transition, are willing and able to serve in their biological sex, and can show 36 months of stability (i.e. the absence of gender dysphoria) before joining,” says the petition.
“Under the Mattis retention standards, service-members who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria after entering the service would be permitted to continue serving if they do not seek to undergo gender transition, are willing and able to serve in their biological sex, and are able to meet applicable deployability requirements,” it says.
Here is Pelosi’s full statement on Trump’s decision to take the case to the Supreme Court:
“The President’s ban is a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who have stepped forward to serve our country.
“This bigoted ban weakens our military readiness and our country, and shows this president’s stunning lack of loyalty to those who risk all to defend our freedoms.
“We will continue to fight this discriminatory action, which has no place in our country. House Democrats will never allow hate and prejudice to dictate our national security.”