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Seventeen transgender Air Force members discharged under the Trump administration’s transgender ban are suing the federal government for revoking their pensions and benefits after their forced early retirement.
The transgender members, who served between 15 years and 18 years in the Air Force, are asking for retirement benefits that had previously been offered to them.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday, comes after the Air Force said in August that transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years would not be offered the option to retire early and apply for benefits, a reversal of an earlier decision.
The service members impacted by the new policy now face a loss of up to $2 million owed for their service over the course of their lifetimes, on top of the loss of health insurance benefits, according to GLAD Law, one of the advocacy groups that helped bring the lawsuit.
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A group of 17 transgender Air Force members sued the federal government after the military rescinded their early retirement benefits. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
A staff attorney with the group, Michael Haley, said the revocation of the early retirement benefits was part of “the general cruelty in attacking transgender people,” adding that several of the plaintiffs had received orders allowing their retirements and that some had already started the process of leaving the military.
“These are folks who are going to move on with their lives, have received the OK to do so, and then have that taken away from them once again,” Haley said.
A master sergeant in the Air Force with 15 years of service, including a deployment to Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit after having early retirement rejected, saying “the military taught me to lead and fight, not retreat.”
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The transgender service members are asking for the retirement benefits that had previously been available to them. (Reuters)
“Stripping away my retirement sends the message that those values only apply on the battlefield, not when a service member needs them most,” Logan Ireland told The Associated Press.
This is just the latest legal challenge against the administration’s policies that seek to force transgender troops out of the military. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the ban on transgender troops to move forward while legal challenges proceed.
President Donald Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth have targeted transgender service members as part of their efforts to root out diversity, equity and inclusion in the military.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump have targeted transgender service members as part of their efforts to root out perceived diversity, equity and inclusion in the military. (Evan Vucci/AP)
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On top of revoking retirement benefits, the Air Force moved in August to deny transgender members the opportunity to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving.
The Pentagon also recently revealed a similar version of that policy across the military.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.