Washington D.C., Jan 22, 2019 / 14:26 pm
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's ban on transgender persons serving in the military to go into effect, while the issue continues to be adjudicated in lower courts.
The Supreme Court's five conservative members voted Jan. 22 to lift nationwide injunctions that had blocked the ban from going into effect. However, the policy is being appealed in lower courts, and those appeals will still be going forward despite the ruling.
In July 2017 Trump announced on Twitter that anyone identifying or presenting as a sex different from their biological sex would be prohibited from military service, with extremely limited exceptions. The policy was formally issued in 2018 by then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
Previously, under President Barack Obama's administration, military policies were changed to allow people who do not identify themselves according to their biological sex, or who were seeking surgical "gender transition", to join the military.