Navy officer sues to overturn transgender service ban.

Byline: Pat Murphy

A U.S. Navy officer stationed in Massachusetts is suing to prevent her involuntary discharge pursuant to President Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military.

The "Jane Doe" plaintiff alleges in her lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper and Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly that the transgender military ban violates her constitutional rights.

"Defendants' policy of excluding transgender persons from military service subjects Plaintiff to unequal treatment based on her sex and transgender status, without lawful justification, in violation of the Equal Protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment," states the complaint in Doe v. Esper.

The plaintiff filed her lawsuit on March 17 in U.S. District Court in Boston. According to the complaint, the plaintiff currently serves in the Navy as a lieutenant. Doe received her commission in 2010 and her "exemplary" service record includes two extended tours of duty as a surface warfare officer.

The plaintiff is described in the lawsuit as a "transgender woman who has recently come to terms with her transgender identity." The lawsuit alleges a military doctor diagnosed the plaintiff with gender dysphoria in June 2019.

"Lieutenant Doe hopes and intends to serve the United States for many more years and aspires to continued advancement and leadership as a Navy officer," the complaint states.

But there's a roadblock.

In July 2017, President Trump tweeted that he was reversing a policy adopted just a year earlier by the Obama administration allowing transgender people to serve openly in the U.S. Armed Forces. That tweet later became a formal directive to the Department of Defense. In February 2018, after legal challenges that resulted in four federal courts issuing nationwide injunctions against the president's directive, then-Defense Secretary James N. Mattis issued a formal report for the implementation of Trump's transgender ban.

Mattis concluded that allowing openly transgender people to serve "could undermine readiness, disrupt unit cohesion, and impose an unreasonable burden on the military that is not conducive to military effectiveness and lethality."

The president subsequently adopted Mattis' recommendation.

That new DOD policy, which is the target of Doe's lawsuit, generally disqualifies from military service transgender people with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The policy makes exceptions for those who have...