BURSTA federal court on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from separating two transgender service members from the military under a pair of executive orders while another case moves forward.
Two transgender men, Master Sgt. Logan Ireland and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Bear Bade, had argued in a lawsuit that President Trump’s executive orders proclaiming the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and barring trans people from serving openly in the military subject them and other trans service members “to unequal, harmful, and demeaning treatment.”
Ireland and Bade, both members of the U.S. Air Force, also challenged the implementation of those orders by Acting Air Force Secretary Gary Ashworth and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who over the weekend mocked on social media the Washington, D.C., judge who said Trump’s ban on trans military service is “soaked in animus” and blocked it nationwide.
In a March 19 post on the social platform X, Hegseth wrote that the Pentagon is appealing that decision, “and we will win.”
The Pentagon in February instructed military leaders to begin identifying transgender service members within 30 days and begin “separation actions” within 60 days. Like Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order on transgender troops, the Feb. 26 policy memo from the Defense Department suggests a history of gender dysphoria — severe psychological distress that stems from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth — is incompatible with military service.
A 2016 RAND Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon found that allowing trans individuals to serve had no negative impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness.
Because of Trump’s orders and the Pentagon’s policies effectuating them, Ireland and Bade have been placed on administrative absence, which their lawsuit claims “is the way the U.S. Military fires people.”
“It is a process typically used for misconduct or failing to meet standards, not for treatable medical conditions where the service member meets the requirements for service, including both job performance and fitness standards,” states the lawsuit, filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. “As such, involuntary administrative separation carries with it a stigma that can follow a service member beyond their time in the military.”
Ireland, 37, has served with distinction in the Air Force for more than 14 years, including tours in Afghanistan, Qatar, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. The 2015 New York Times short documentary “Transgender, at War, and in Love” chronicled part of his coming-out journey.
Bade, 44, has served with distinction in the Air Force for six years and was, until recently, deployed to the Ali Al Salem Airbase in Kuwait as a member of the base’s Security Forces.
In her ruling on Monday, U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn, an appointee of former President Biden, wrote that both Ireland and Bade “have exemplary service records” and “face severe personal and professional harm absent a preliminary injunction.”
“In contrast,” she wrote, “Defendants have not demonstrated any compelling justification whatsoever for immediate implementation of the Orders, particularly since transgender persons have been openly serving in the military for a number of years.”
Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, one of the organizations representing Ireland and Bade in court, said Monday in a statement that the group is “relieved” by O’Hearn’s ruling.
“Staff Sergeant Bade and Master Sergeant Ireland had both already fallen victim to this administration’s aggressive implementation of the ban, being yanked from key deployments and forced onto administrative absence against their will,” she said. “These Airmen have risked everything to protect American freedoms—they deserve better than becoming the targets of a calculated, political purge.”