It took a federal judge for trans people to be defended against Republicans | Opinion
For now, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes' opinion is a strong stand against the Trump administration's desire to rid the United States of trans people and the lengths they will go to target them.

Finally, someone in the U.S. government is standing up for trans people.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington. D.C., temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. It’s one of the many ways Trump and Republicans are crusading against what they refer to as “radical gender ideology.”
“Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes wrote in her scathing 79-page opinion.
In a political culture where Republicans are showing outright animus toward trans people and Democrats are doing little to come to their defense, having allies is vital. Reyes’ opinion sets the bar for resistance to the Trump administration. It will hopefully lead other judges to rule in favor of trans people in similar cases when the law demands it.
Judge points out Trump's clear discrimination
The executive order signed in January never uses the word “transgender” – a word the Trump administration has erased from all government websites – but it’s obvious that it’s supposed to target transgender people. According to Trump, any gender dysphoria disqualifies someone from serving in the U.S. military.
“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the executive order reads.
Reyes argues that it clearly targets transgender servicemembers and discriminates against them.
“Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” the judge wrote.
The language, Reyes points out, is also broad enough that it could affect anyone who exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria, even if they are not transgender.
When the defense counsel tried to argue that a post made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simply used “transgender” as a “shorthand” for gender dysphoria, the judge shot back in her ruling.
“Seriously? These were not off-the-cuff remarks at a cocktail party,” Reyes wrote. “DoD and Secretary Hegseth used official government accounts to announce a new policy affecting the entire U.S. Military. The Court presumes that in doing so they did not use loose or misleading language.”
The Trump administration isn't going to stop anytime soon
This setback isn’t going to stop the Trump administration’s fight against transgender people. In an X post after the decision came down, Hegseth said that the administration is appealing and declared that “we will win.”
For now, though, Reyes’ opinion is a strong stand against the Trump administration’s desire to rid the United States of trans people and the lengths they will go to target a small group of people.
This ruling will not change the harm that the Trump administration has caused. It will not change that these servicemembers' commander in chief told them that they are not worthy of serving their country.
It will, however, set a precedent for how to respond to the Trump administration's attack on trans people and hopefully lead to more legal actions against the Republican attempt to degrade an entire group.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno