A federal judge has once again pushed back against the Trump administration’s attempts to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military, issuing a temporary order to protect two U.S. Air Force members from being discharged.
U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn granted the injunction, shielding Master Sgt. Logan Ireland and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Bear Bade—both transgender—from involuntary administrative separation, the military’s formal process for terminating service members. The ruling follows their legal challenge to executive orders introduced under former President Donald Trump, which stated that gender is immutable and sought to exclude transgender people from military service.
“Involuntary administrative separation is the way the U.S. Military fires people,” their lawsuit states. “It carries with it a stigma that can follow a service member beyond their time in the military.”
Judge O’Hearn noted in her decision that the “harms are immediate, ongoing, and significant, and cannot be remedied in the ordinary course of litigation.” She highlighted the Air Force members’ strong service histories and warned of “severe personal and professional harm” should they be discharged without court intervention.
The judge also criticised the Trump administration’s lack of justification for the urgency of the ban, writing, “The administration has 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.”
This case is one of several legal challenges currently filed in opposition to the Trump-era policy. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the ban. “In the self-evident truth that all people are created equal, all means all,” Reyes wrote. “Nothing more. And certainly nothing less.”
During proceedings, Judge Reyes also slammed the rationale behind the policy, calling the notion that the use of trans pronouns undermines military cohesion “frankly ridiculous” and indicative of what she described as the Trump administration’s “unadulterated animus” toward transgender individuals.
Despite these rulings, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on X that the administration plans to appeal. “We’re appealing this decision, and we will win,” he wrote.
Research has long cast doubt on the reasoning behind such bans. A 2016 study by the RAND Corporation concluded that the costs of providing transgender-related medical care were negligible compared to the Department of Defense’s overall healthcare expenditure. The study also found that transgender service members have not harmed military readiness, with other countries successfully integrating trans troops without adverse effects on unit performance or cohesion.
