Two women senators – Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand – challenged President Donald Trump’s military transgender ban by introducing an amendment on Monday blocking any exclusion based on gender identity alone.
The two senators are seeking a Senate vote to get their amendment attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, the defense policy bill that's on the Senate floor this week, CNN reported.
"Our armed forces should welcome the service of any qualified individual who is willing and capable of serving our country," Collins said on her website. "If individuals are willing to put on the uniform of our country, be deployed in war zones, and risk their lives for our freedoms, then we should be expressing our gratitude to them, not trying to exclude them from military service."
In July, Trump announced the military transgender ban in a series of tweets, stopping an Obama administration initiative a year earlier that lifted a ban on transgender service members, National Public Radio reported.
Trump signed a memo in August to implement the policy change, NPR reported.
"Any individual who wants to join our military and meets the standards should be allowed to serve, period. Gender identity should have nothing to do with it," Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, also said on Collins website.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Lambda Legal/OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network have filed separate federal lawsuits seeking an injunction against the ban, NPR said.