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of America as the defendant, argues that the Air Force’s retirement policy states that “retirement orders may only be rescinded under very limited circumstances, none of which were present here.”








