The National Center for Transgender Equality led a brief with nine other transgender rights groups defending the right of transgender people to serve in the military.
The brief was filed in the DC Circuit Case Doe v. Trump, one of four federal court cases challenging the Trump administration's baseless and unsuccessful efforts to ban transgender people from serving the military. Last August, a federal judge issued an injunction against the ban, preventing it from going forward. The case could soon be argued in front of the Supreme Court.
"Although many Americans once considered it natural to discriminate based on race, sex, religion, and other grounds," reads the brief led by NCTE, "we have since come to recognize the injustice pf treating groups differently based on characteristics that have no relationship to their capabilities."
The brief goes on to note "in recent years, an increasing number of Americans have come to recognize the dignity and equality of their transgender neighbors. Against that background, many courts have held that discrimination against transgender people is presumptively suspect."
The brief also notes recent reports indicating the Trump administration is seeking to erase transgender people from federal non-discrimination laws entirely, as well as other efforts by the administration to deter transgender people from being fully recognized and respected under the law.
NCTE joined transgender rights groups from across the country in filing the brief:
