Military families of transgender youth and young adults sued the U.S. Department of Defense this week in Maryland federal court over an executive order barring military hospitals and the military insurance plan from providing gender-affirming health care to service members' children.
Keker, Van Nest & Peters, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), National Center for LGBTQ Rights and Brown Goldstein & Levy filed the suit, captioned Doe v. Department of Defense, on behalf of anonymous Armed Forces members on Sept. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
The case accuses the Department of Defense and its co-defendants, including the Defense Health Agency, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Defense Health Agency Acting Director David Smith, of violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the constitutional separation of powers "as part of a broad effort to strip equal rights from transgender people."
"People who were getting gender transition care, all of a sudden, could no longer get it," said Sharif Jacob, a Keker partner who is representing plaintiffs in the case, in an interview.
"People who were getting medications could no longer get them. The families in this case were suddenly told that the military treatment facilities were no longer allowed to provide the treatment that had helped their children thrive, including routine lab tests that monitor their medications, and that their military health insurance no longer covered the cost of their care. So they're deeply worried as any parent would be, because they know stopping treatment will endanger their children's health."
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