Logan Ireland, a former Air Force master sergeant who served in Afghanistan, is a lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed against President Donald Trump’s administration. Ireland is among 17 veterans arguing they lost retirement pay and health benefits after leaving the military early under Trump’s ban on transgender troops. (Logan Ireland)
WASHINGTON — A lawsuit brought by 17 long-serving transgender service members challenging an order that rescinded their early retirement benefits was argued in an initial hearing Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The hearing was scheduled on the government’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds the court does not have jurisdiction over the claims.
The complaint filed last fall, titled Ireland v. U.S.A., alleges that the Air Force unlawfully revoked the early retirement orders of the plaintiffs, who were serving in the Air Force and Space Force.
The enactment of a transgender military ban prompted the plaintiffs, each with at least 15 years of service, to seek early retirement from military careers, according to court documents.
President Donald Trump in January 2025 signed an executive order that reversed a Biden-era policy allowing transgender troops to openly serve.
The executive order stated that “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.
“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding [Defense Department] policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” according to the order.
Service members with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria were subject to disqualification from military service, according to the ban.
The Air Force granted the 17 service members retirement under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) program but later rescinded the approval, according to court documents.
The plaintiffs stated they were authorized for early retirement by the Air Force secretary, according to court documents.
The Air Force and Space Force both fall under the leadership of the Air Force secretary. The lawsuit included copies of the retirement orders as evidence.
“However, the Air Force abruptly reversed that promise without cause — ripping away the financial support and benefits that these service members earned, and their families were counting on,” according to a statement from their attorneys.
The Pentagon on Tuesday declined to discuss the case because it is ongoing litigation.
The plaintiffs are represented by GLAD Law, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC, and the Law Office of Jeremy Spiegel.
“The Trump administration has broken one of the most important commitments our nation makes to individuals who agreed to put their lives on the line for our country — that in return for that service, the military will provide retirement benefits to those who earn them,” said Shannon Minter, an attorney and the NCLR legal director.
The ban has been “chaotically and slowly implemented,” resulting in some identified transgender troops continuing to serve and subject to humiliation, Minter said.
TERA is a military program that lets service members retire with 15 to 19 years of active duty, instead of the normal 20 years, according to the Armed Forced Benefit Association.
Retirees usually keep full medical care, commissary privileges and other military retirement benefits, according to the Armed Forces Benefit Association.
The plaintiffs each will lose $1 million to $2 million in lifetime benefits, “jeopardizing their families’ economic security,” according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The airmen and their families also are denied access to Tricare, the military health insurance program, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“I raised my hand and served my country honorably for 15 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan,” said Logan Ireland, the lead plaintiff who attained the rank of master sergeant in the Air Force.
“Long-serving service members and their families build their lives around the promise of earned retirement. When that promise is revoked, it does not just affect a paycheck, it affects housing, health care, family stability, and a lifetime of financial security,” Logan said.
The Air Force issued a memo on Aug. 4, 2025, that denied early retirement to all transgender service members with 15 to 18 years of military service, Reuters reported.
“These longer-serving transgender service members will have the same choice as more junior ones: quit or be forced out, with corresponding lump-sum payments as they walk out the door, the Aug. 4 memo says,” Reuters reported.
The lawsuit claims that transgender troops were given the choice to leave the military on their own or face involuntary separation.
Voluntary separation provides substantially less than the partial pensions they would receive by taking early retirement, according to the lawsuit.
In a separate court case last month, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ruled that Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.
