Queers in the military got their panties in a bunch! On Thursday, February 6. 2025 ABC News ran this headline, “Service members sue Trump administration over transgender military service ban.”
Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign, two leading LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday challenging the Trump administration over the president’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military.
The lawsuit, which was obtained by ABC News, was filed in the U.S. District Court-Western District of Washington on behalf of six active duty transgender service members, a transgender person seeking to enlist in the military, as well as Seattle human rights organization Gender Justice League.
“By categorically excluding transgender people, the 2025 Military Ban and related federal policy and directives violate the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment and the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment,” the lawsuit said. “They lack any legitimate or rational justification, let alone the compelling and exceedingly persuasive ones required. Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek declaratory, and preliminary and permanent injunctive, relief.”
U.S. Navy Commander Emily “Hawking” Shilling, who according to the lawsuit has been serving in the military for 19 years, criticized the ban in a statement, saying that the measure is “not about readiness or cohesion, and it is certainly not about merit.”
“It is about exclusion and betrayal, purposely targeting those of us who volunteered to serve, simply for having the courage and integrity to live our truth,” Shilling said,
The lawsuit comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 28, rescinding Biden administration policies that permitted transgender service members to serve openly in the military based on their gender identity.
“I would imagine that during times of war our military personnel are in close quarters. Even in peaceful times our military share a lot of spaces. As a woman, would you be comfortable sharing that space with a man pretending he’s female or vice versa?”, said Thomas Robb, the National Director of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, centrally based in Harrison, Arkansas, with members throughout America. “I would image that there are certain things that would disqualify someone from serving in the military. At the top of that list you would think mental illness would be a disqualification. So lets just forget about the idea that banning homosexuals is done just to target them. Let’s say that someone who was schizophrenic decided they wanted to join the military. I would think they would be disqualified from serving. Not to pick on the mentally ill, but that person would not be safe. Even with medication, they can become unmanageable. Up until 1972 or ’73, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. In my opinion, and many other peoples opinion, it still is a mental illness. If you believe homosexuality isn’t a mental illness, the next time there’s a Pride march on TV, or in your area, go to it. Don’t take your children with you because what you will witness at these homosexual events is just un-Godly deviancy. If what you see doesn’t convince you that homosexuality is not just a mental illness, it’s also an outright sin against God what more will it take? Look at these freaks of nature…would you want them defending you in any war? Better yet, would you want one of them by your side when you’re fighting for your life on the battlefield? Who cares who feelings get hurt, but homosexuals have no business in our military.”
