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APA denounced the Supreme Court decision in January that allows the U.S. military to bar individuals who are transgender from service.

A sharply divided high court handed the Trump administration the victory for its policy banning transgender military service by a vote of 5-4 without discussing the merits of the case. In response, APA issued a statement calling for the protection of transgender individuals’ civil rights and expressing great disappointment in the decision.

President Donald Trump signed the ban order last March to disqualify individuals who are transgender from military service except under certain limited circumstances, but four federal courts issued preliminary injunctions to block it. The Supreme Court decision lifts the injunctions and allows the ban to take effect while the cases challenging the policy continue to wind their way through the courts.

“We are extremely concerned that the military will discriminate against transgender Americans who want to serve their country while these lower court cases are being decided,” said APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., in a statement issued to the media. “Banning transgender service members from serving our country harms not just those transgender Americans who have dedicated themselves to service of others, but it unfairly casts a pall over all transgender Americans. And as psychiatrists, we know all too well the negative impact that discrimination has on the mental health of those targeted.”

“Losing highly qualified transgender military personnel does not benefit the military or the nation,” added APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A. “We firmly believe the United States should be more inclusive and stand against discrimination of any minority group.”

At least 18 countries allow individuals who are transgender to serve openly in their militaries, including a number of close U.S. allies, such as the United Kingdom, Israel, and Australia. An increasing majority of Fortune 500 companies specifically include “gender identity” as part their nondiscrimination policies, now at 83 percent. In addition, more than half of such companies offer employee health insurance plans with transgender-inclusive coverage (58 percent), up from zero in 2002, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index 2018.

Trump’s policy bans individuals who have transitioned from their gender assigned at birth from joining the military. It also requires current troops to serve as members of their gender assigned at birth, with an exception for those who began a gender transition under previous Obama administration rules. Trump cited “tremendous medical costs and disruption” as reasons for the ban when he first announced the policy, by tweet, in July 2017.

The Supreme Court decision effectively reverses the Obama administration decision in June 2016 granting transgender service members the right to serve openly. The decision had also allowed transgender servicemembers diagnosed with gender dysphoria to undergo gender transition. The reasons cited for the decision were the need to recruit and retain the best talent, provide clearer guidance to existing service members who are transgender, and a matter of principle.

A Rand Corporation review commissioned by the Obama administration at the time estimated that the cost impact of providing gender transition services to service members would be minimal, largely because there are so few, only about 2,500 to 7,000 of the 1.3 million of those on active duty. ■

APA’s statement can be accessed here.