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US Supreme Court allows Trump military transgender ban | US Supreme Court allows Trump military transgender ban |
(35 minutes later) | |
The United States Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military. | The United States Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military. |
The court voted 5-4 to grant a Trump administration request to lift injunctions blocking the policy while challenges continue in lower courts. | The court voted 5-4 to grant a Trump administration request to lift injunctions blocking the policy while challenges continue in lower courts. |
The four liberal judges on the court opposed the ruling. | The four liberal judges on the court opposed the ruling. |
The policy prohibits "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from serving. | The policy prohibits "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from serving. |
The president announced on Twitter in 2017 that the country would no longer "accept or allow" transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption". | |
Former defence secretary Jim Mattis refined the policy to limit it to transgender individuals with a history of gender dysphoria, and it makes exceptions for several hundred transgender people already serving openly or willing to serve "in their biological sex". | |
Several trial judges around the country had issued injunctions blocking it. | |
The move is a reversal of an Obama administration policy that ruled transgender Americans could serve openly in the military as well as obtain funding for gender re-assignment surgery. | |
Gender dysphoria is when a person's biological sex and identity does not match. | |
There are currently some 8,980 active duty transgender troops, according to Department of Defence data analysed by the Palm Center, a public policy nonprofit. | |
While Mr Trump's rationale for banning transgender troops was financial, according to estimates by the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank working with the US Armed Forces, transition-related healthcare costs are between $2.4m (£1.8m) and $8.4m per year. | |
In 2017, defence data viewed by the Palm Center indicates that cost was in fact lower, at $2.2m. |