A
friend-of-the-court brief is filed by non-parties to a case who have
expertise to offer and a strong interest in the subject matter of the
litigation.
“Our
nation’s most respected former military leaders are going on record to
oppose this destructive and irrational ban. They are telling the court
that excluding qualified individuals simply because they are transgender
harms military recruitment and retention and contradicts foundational
military values of loyalty, duty, respect, integrity and honor,” said NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter.
“The
briefs submitted by these experts explain why the transgender military
ban weakens our present and future military. These also provide a
historical lens, demonstrating that just like the ban on women in
combat, and racial segregation of servicemembers, the transgender
military ban must be relegated to the dustbin of history,” said GLAD Transgender Rights Project Director Jennifer Levi.
Key arguments include:
- Allowing transgender troops to serve strengthens our military;
- The ban on transgender people serving undermines military recruitment and retention goals, which is particularly problematic at a time when service branches are trying to grow their ranks in order to meet demands on national security;
- Military service is a hallmark of equal citizenship and has played a critical role in establishing equality for women, racial minorities, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual people;
- Historically, “military readiness” has been invoked by civilian leaders as a cover for discomfort and discrimination against groups previously excluded from service;
- The transgender military ban rests on the same stereotypes used to discriminate against women.
A compelling brief from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Service Women’s Action Network, NYC Veterans Alliance and others, spotlights military heroes who would have been excluded from service if prior discriminatory regulations had remained in effect:
“Consider
where our military would be today if past categorical bans and limits
on service had not been lifted. We would likely have seen no Gen. Colin
Powell, the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. We would likely have seen no Lt. Gen. Susan Helms, the first
female Air Force officer to venture into space as part of the crew of
the space shuttle Endeavor. We would likely have seen no Brig. Gen.
Tammy Smith, the first openly LGB general in U.S. Army history. And if
the Transgender Ban is allowed to stand, we will likely never know what
future heroes our country has passed over, including potentially the
very plaintiffs in this case.”
Another brief
authored by the Truman Center, Minority Veterans of America, and others
presents first-person accounts by servicemembers and veterans about how
the diverse experiences of servicemembers strengthens the military,
including this quote from a Marine veteran:
“The
most effective units I saw were those that had people with different
perspectives who could think about how to solve a problem in a way you
never thought of. When I was in the Middle East I wanted a unit
comprised of a variety of people, that way I knew that when a problem
occurred, and one always occurred, we would be thinking about how to
tackle it from all the angles. All I, and my team cared about, was how
do we solve the problem.”
