U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blasted President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military on Tuesday. Reyes called the order’s assertion that trans pronoun use undermines troop effectiveness “frankly ridiculous” and evidence of Trump’s “unadulterated animus” against trans individuals.

Reyes made her comments during a hearing in which she questioned lawyers representing Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ). They discussed whether lawsuits against the order should proceed. Trump’s order referred to trans identity as a mental disorder and called trans people selfish, dishonorable, deceitful, undisciplined, and a threat to military readiness and lethality.

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A majority of Americans still support transgender people serving in the military
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Trump’s order directed his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to ban the “use of invented and identification-based pronouns” in the military; prohibit “biological males and females” from sleeping, changing and using bathing facilities intended for the opposite sex; and “update all Department of Defense medical standards to ensure they prioritize readiness and lethality.”

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During the hearing, Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asked DOJ attorney Jason Lynch if the trans military members who filed lawsuits against Trump’s orders are “honorable, truthful, and disciplined.”

She said, “As far as I know, among them, they have over 60 years of military service. And you would agree that together, the plaintiffs have made America safer?”

Lynch replied, “I would agree, yes.”

Then, Reyes said, “We are dealing with the president of the United States calling a group of people who have served their country — who, you have told me, have made America safer — calling them liars.”

“This is a policy of the president of the United States that is affecting thousands of people, carte blanche, without any support that has been given by anyone,” Reyes added, according to The Hill. “How is that anything other than showing animus?”

She then mimicked language from Trump’s order, telling Lynch that she would consider banning all University of Virginia graduates, like him, from appearing before her because they’re “liars” and “lack integrity.”

“Is that animus?” she asked Lynch.

Later on in the five-hour hearing, Reyes asked, “Can we agree that the greatest fighting force… is not going to be impacted in any way by less than one percent of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them?”

She then noted the lack of evidence that trans inclusion harms military readiness. She said that any “common sense rational human being” knows that trans pronouns don’t harm the military in any significant way, adding, “because it doesn’t.”

“Would you agree with me that if our military is negatively impacted in any kind of way that matters… we all have a lot bigger problems than pronoun use?” she said. “We have a military that is incompetent.”

When a DOJ attorney said they disagreed with Reyes’ claim, she described the Trump administration’s pronoun claim simply as a “frankly ridiculous” “pretext” for his transphobic animus.

“If you want to get me an officer of the U.S. military who is willing to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage the U.S. military is less prepared… I will be the first to give you a box of cigars,” she said, according to Raw Story.

Trump’s ban gives the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth 60 days to implement its directives. The ban will affect an estimated 8,000 to 15,000 trans soldiers.

The DOJ lawyers argued that legal challenges against the ban shouldn’t be allowed to proceed since the 60-day deadline for Hegseth’s directives hasn’t expired yet and thus, the ban isn’t technically in place yet. However, Hegseth has instructed recruiters for the Army, Air Force and Navy to stop accepting trans recruits, The Hill reported.

Two legal challenges have been filed against Trum[‘s ban: The first was filed at the end of January and the second was filed near the start of February.

The second lawsuit says that the Trump administration discriminated against trans people based purely on sex “without even a legitimate justification, let alone the important, exceedingly persuasive, or compelling one required.” The lawsuit additionally says the ban “burdens and chills” the plaintiffs’ exercise of free speech, making them deny their trans identity in their professional and private lives, even though the military allowed out trans people to serve at least twice in the past.

A 2016 study by the RAND Corporation found that the cost of trans-related medical care is exceedingly small relative to the Department of Defense’s overall healthcare costs, that trans people do not harm military readiness, and that foreign militaries have successfully enlisted trans military service members without any negative effects on effectiveness, readiness, or unit cohesion.

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