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Just ahead of Veterans Day, 17 transgender service members sued the Trump administration for denying them their retirement benefits.
The Air Force and Space Force members, each with at least 15 years of service, claim the military revoked pensions and health care that had been previously granted to them.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January that effectively bans transgender people from serving in the military. The Pentagon subsequently issued a memo to identify and disqualify service members with “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”
Service members who elected to leave the military voluntarily were eligible for separation pay, and those with “more than 18 years of service but less than 20 years of service are eligible for early retirement.”
The Air Force committed in June to continuing to issue benefits to transgender members removed from service before reversing course in August — a loss of roughly $1 million to $2 million over the course of their lifetimes, the lawsuit argues.
The lawsuit, which names the United States of America as the defendant, argues that the Air Force’s retirement policy states that “retirement orders may only be rescinded under very limited circumstances, none of which were present here.”
“Ripping away the retirements we have earned is a betrayal of the sacrifices made by servicemembers and our families,” the lead plaintiff, Master Sgt. Logan Ireland, said in a statement. “We should not be thrown into economic hardship or made to feel our years of service are regarded by our country as meaningless.”
Michael Haley, an attorney from GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) representing the plaintiffs, called the denial of benefits “a senseless and shocking affront to troops who have sacrificed so much for our country.”
The Air Force did not immediately respond to an email from MSNBC seeking comment.
GLAD Law and the National Center for LGBTQ Rights have filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military. That lawsuit is pending.