Organizations leading the legal fight against the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service issued the following statement in response to new data from the Public Religion Research Institute, which shows that support for transgender service in the military increased among Republicans by 10 points in the past two years — from 37% in 2017 to 47% in 2019 — and majority support for transgender troops across geographic and religious demographics.

Statement by Jennifer Levi, Director of the Transgender Rights Project at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD):

“The American public understands what top military leaders understand: qualification for military service should be based on the ability to meet military standards, not on singling out one group of people for different treatment. Banning transgender troops weakens our military, harms service members, and betrays the core values of equality and fairness that most Americans support.”

Statement by Shannon Minter, Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR):

“Polling on this issue has repeatedly shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans support transgender service members. The President’s continued attacks on transgender service members are  not only dangerous and unprincipled, they are out of step with the American public.” 

NCLR and GLAD have been at the center of the legal fight challenging the Trump-Pence transgender military ban since filing Doe v. Trump, the first of four cases filed against the ban, on August 9, 2017.

For more information on the legal timeline and ongoing developments in the legal cases challenging the ban, please visit notransmilitaryban.org.