US judge denies Trump's bid to delay transgender military recruits

A US federal judge on Monday ruled that the White House must accept transgender military recruits by January 1, 2018.

US President Donald Trump announced the ban on transgender military enlistment on Twitter in July. In response, two US civil rights groups, on behalf of six unnamed service members and two recruits, filed a lawsuit against the ban in the federal court.

"The court will not stay its preliminary injunction pending defendants' appeal," Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the US District Court for the District of Columbia announced on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"In sum, having carefully considered all of the evidence before it, the court is not persuaded that defendants will be irreparably injured by allowing the accession of transgender individuals into the military beginning on January 1, 2018." the judge wrote.

In October, Kollar-Kotelly issued an injunction blocking the ban from taking effect. Since then, the Trump administration has sought to implement a ban on enlisting new transgender troops.

On October 30, Kollar-Kotelly found the administration's justification for the ban, which was set to take effect in March 2018, to be suspect and likely unconstitutional.

She had ruled that the military's current policy should remain in place.

"There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effective on the military at all," the judge wrote in a strongly worded, 76-page ruling.

"In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects."

--IANS

pgh/