Trump admin sued by transgender Air Force members who lost retirement benefits

President Donald Trump’s administration is facing a lawsuit from transgender Air Force members over retirement benefits.

Under Trump, the 17 transgender members were discharged from the service after 15 to 18 years and had their pensions revoked. Now, they are requesting the retirement benefits that had once been offered, according to a Fox News report.

“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 article reads. “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.”

Michael Haley, one of the group’s staff attorneys, accused the transgender ban of being part of “the general cruelty in attacking transgender people,” and claimed that some of the members had been told they would be allowed to keep their retirement, while others were already in the discharging process.

“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,” he 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,'” the outlet reported.

“Stripping away my retirement sends the message that those values only apply on the battlefield, not when a service member needs them most, said Logan Ireland in a statement to the Associated Press.

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