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By Josh Nathan-Kazis July 28, 2017

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman joined 19 other state attorneys general in a letter to Congress yesterday, calling on legislators to protect transgender people serving in the armed services.

The letter comes days after a puzzling series of tweets in which President Donald Trump seemed to imply that transgender people currently serving in the military could be expelled. Pentagon leaders later clarified that no such expulsion had been ordered.

In their letter, the attorneys general asked that the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress hopes to pass in the coming days, include language banning discrimination against transgender people, and disallowing any future transgender ban.

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“The policy announced by President Trump’s tweet undermines the national security goal of giving every able American who wants to serve in the military the opportunity to serve, creates untold bureaucratic and legal cost and complexities in implementation, and would put in place a policy that violates fundamental constitutional and American values,” the letter reads.

In a statement about his signing, Schneiderman said that his office is committed to the proection of transgender individuals.

“Transgender Americans who fight for our country deserve a government that will fight for them in return,” Schnedierman said.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

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