US President Donald Trump's administration has appealed to the United States Supreme Court to consider proposed restrictions to transgender military members.
The restrictions, which have been blocked by lower courts, were first announced by the President in July 2017 on his Twitter account before being officially recognised by Secretary of Defence James Mattis.
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"The United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he tweeted.
The official restrictions would include blocking most individuals with supposed "gender dysphoria" from serving, while also specifying that all other individuals who serve do so according to the sex assigned to them at birth, reports CNN.
The American Psychiatric Association states that not all transgender individuals necessarily suffer from gender dysphoria, which involves a conflict between a person's assigned gender and the gender in which they identify.
While challenges to district courts' blocking of the policy are on-going, Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed petitions on Friday (US time) for the Supreme Court to take up the issue.
Mr Francisco said the military had been forced to continue its prior policy while the courts sorted out the matter.
He also noted that Mr Mattis and a panel of experts had argued the "prior policy, adopted by [Defence Secretary Ash Carter] posed too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality".
The Department of Justice had earlier warned the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal - which is considering a challenge - that it planned to ask for an emergency relief to stop the injunction.
The Supreme Court, now with the addition of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, does not normally consider issues until they have gone through the lower courts, but reports suggest Mr Trump wants to sort out the matter within this term.
According to the BBC, between 4000 and 10,000 US servicemen are believed to be transgender. An Obama policy allowed them to serve in the military.
Newshub.
