The United States Supreme Court validates the exclusion of transgender soldiers

The United States Supreme Court, the majority of conservative, provisionally authorized Donald Trump administration on Tuesday, excluding transgender people from the army, a success for the American president who multiplies attacks against the LGBT+community.

By a majority of six votes, those of the three conservative judges against the advice of the three progressives, the Court lifts the suspension by a court of first instance of a decree of the American president Donald Trump, until a Federal Court of Appeal spoke on the merits. She has not motivated her decision.

Two federal judges, one in the state of Washington (west) and one in the Federal capital, had suspended the presidential decree excluding transgender people from the armed forces. But the Trump administration called on these decisions and then seized the Supreme Court.

“A devastating blow”

The decision of the Supreme Court carries “a devastating blow on the transgender soldiers who have proven their capacities and their commitment to the defense of our country”, deplored in a press release of associations which challenged the decree in legal proceedings.

“Transgender people meet the same criteria and embody the same values ​​as all those who serve under the flags,” they added, saying convinced that this exclusion was unconstitutional and would end up being canceled by justice.

The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt welcomed X of what she described as “a new massive victory at the Supreme Court” with a view to the restructuring of armed forces far from “Woke genre ideology”. This term is used in a pejorative manner by the conservatives to designate what they consider to be excessive claims in favor of racial or sexual minorities.

For his part, the United States Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth laconically praised this decision on his personal account X by this message: “More trans to the Ministry of Defense”.

“Transgender ideology”

“To ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world, we will get rid of our army of transgender ideology,” said Donald Trump at the end of January, before signing a decree in this direction.

“Expressing a false +gender identity +, divergent to the sex of an individual, cannot meet the rigorous standards necessary for military service”, can be read in the decree. A group of transgender people, soldiers or wishing to become it, had then challenged this decree in justice.

Under this text, the Ministry of Defense indicated in February its intention not only to stop the recruitment of transgender people in the armed forces, but also to expel those who are already part of it, except special derogation.

The soldiers who have been targeted diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the suffering state experienced by people whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth – 4240 identified at the end of last year, according to a defense official. As well as all those who have suffered or have symptoms.

Donald Trump had already targeted transgender people during his first mandate (2017-2021), preventing recruitment in the army of people with hormonal treatment or having already carried out medical change of sex.

His Democratic successor Joe Biden had returned to this decision and had again authorized their enrollment, stressing that “all the Americans capable of serving in the armed forces of the United States should be able to do so”.

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AFP/Yona Helaoua

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