Donald Trump’s administration illegally stripped retirement benefits from transgender service members despite the decades of service among them, a new lawsuit from more than a dozen trans military members alleges.
The lawsuit accuses the administration of revoking retirement orders that were issued to 17 trans service members who were forced out of military service under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ban on trans people serving in all branches.
“I raised my hand and served my country honorably for 15 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan,” said lead plaintiff Master Sergeant Logan Ireland, whose retirement orders were rescinded by the Air Force.
“Ripping away the retirements we have earned is a betrayal of the sacrifices made by servicemembers and our families,” he said. “We should not be thrown into economic hardship or made to feel our years of service are regarded by our country as meaningless.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., is the latest in a series of months-long legal battles waged by trans service members and veterans in the aftermath of Trump’s executive order directing the Pentagon to remove trans people from the U.S. military.
In June, the Air Force issued retirement orders to transgender plaintiffs in this case, but those orders were rescinded in August, separating the service members without retirement under the terms of Hegseth’s ban on trans service members, according to the lawsuit.
Those initial retirement orders were based on the Temporary Early Retirement Authority, or TERA, which allows members with at least 15 years of service to retire early under certain conditions.
Plaintiffs argue that the rescission of those retirement orders violates the Air Force’s own retirement policies and procedures, stranding them without earned benefits that amount to roughly $2 million over their lifetimes — including access to the government’s healthcare program for active-duty troops and retirees and their families.
The Trump administration “continues to deepen its betrayal of veterans by ripping away the pensions and health care benefits of honorable Airmen who have deployed around the world,” according to Shannon Minter, legal director with the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs in this case.
“There has never been an administration that has shown such open hostility to the brave men and women who have served our country,” he said.
The Pentagon declined to respond to the lawsuit in response to The Independent’s request, citing Defense Department policy against commenting on ongoing litigation.
“This is a senseless and shocking affront to troops who have sacrificed so much for our country,” according to GLAD Law staff attorney Michael Haley, who is also representing troops at the center of the lawsuit.
“These brave transgender servicemembers deserve the retirement benefits they have earned and that the Air Force granted them,” Haley said. “As a country, we must honor our word to them, not rip away their benefits.”
In May, the Pentagon ordered military officials to “immediately” review medical records for trans service members to begin removing them from all branches of the armed forces.
The order followed a Supreme Court decision that — for now — allows the Trump administration to ban trans people from the military and remove currently serving trans service members, despite court rulings that found the president’s directive plainly discriminatory.
Trump implemented a similar ban in his first administration, ostensibly on the spurious basis that the cost of gender-affirming healthcare would financially burden the armed forces.
This year, the president issued an executive order declaring that trans people lack a necessary “honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle” to serve, and that being transgender is “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member” — despite the fact that roughly 4,000 trans people serve across all branches of the nation’s military and have for years.
More than two dozen trans service members sued the administration to block the order and restore their service in legal challenges that remain pending in federal appeals courts.
