Jo Yurcaba

Earlier this month, the Defense Department told transgender service members that they had to choose whether they would voluntarily or involuntarily separate from the military.  Four trans service members who are now in the process of separating said nothing about their decisions feels voluntary at all. “Nobody feels like this is voluntary,” said Emily Shilling, a commander in the Navy and the president of SPARTA, a nonprofit group that advocates for trans service members. “This is coercion. This is under duress.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order a week into his administration prohibiting trans people from enlisting or serving in the […]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump to implement his ban on transgender people serving in the military. The justices granted an emergency request from the Trump administration to lift a nationwide injunction blocking the policy while litigation continues. The court’s brief order noted that the three liberal justices dissented. “No more trans @ DoD,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X. In a separate Defense Department post earlier Tuesday, before the decision was issued, Hegseth said in a video: “No more dudes in dresses. We are done with that s—.” Just over 4,000 transgender people currently serve in the military, according to Defense Department data, though some activists […]

A transgender military pilot filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a conservative influencer who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying the helicopter that collided with a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport in January, killing 67 people.   “I want to hold this person accountable for what they did to me,” Jo Ellis, a pilot who has served more than 15 years in the Virginia Army National Guard, said in a statement to NBC News. “It’s become too common that people can say horrible things about someone, profit at their expense, and get away with it.”  On Jan. 30, less […]

A federal judge Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from enlisting or serving in the military.  U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of Washington, D.C., ruled that the ban violates the equal protection clause because it discriminates based on transgender status and sex.  Reyes said the ban “is soaked in animus.” “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” she wrote. She added, “Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed — some risking their lives — to ensure for others […]

Transgender veterans will no longer be provided hormone therapy through the Department of Veterans Affairs, unless they were already receiving such care through the department or the military, the VA announced Monday. The reversal of the decade-old policy comes just days after the VA rescinded a 2018 directive that required the department to treat trans veterans “with respect and dignity.” The directive required coverage of mental health care, hormone therapy, pre-surgery evaluation and care after surgery as medically necessary. The VA has never covered gender-affirming surgery for veterans.  The rescinded directive also required health care providers to address veterans by their […]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared Friday that state court orders to change the sex markers on Texas birth certificates, driver’s licenses and other state-issued IDs are no longer valid. State agencies have already prohibited transgender people from changing the sex markers on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses through internal policy changes last year. Paxton’s new directive requires them to go further and revert back any sex marker changes that were the result of court orders. The directive is the first of its kind nationwide and marks yet another escalation in the state’s nearly decadelong effort to restrict the rights of trans people.  “There are […]