US court bars Trump on reversing transgender policy

A United States court on Monday largely blocked President Donald Trump's controversial ban on transgender people serving in the military.

Trump in August signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving openly, reversing former president Barack Obama's directive allowing them to do so.

The move prompted a flood of lawsuits, many of them filed on behalf of transgender service members or veterans.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided in part with a group of transgender service members who sued to block the change, halting Trump's ban on service but upholding the Trump's move to block the military from paying for gender reassignment surgery.

The order by Kollar-Kotelly temporarily prevents the Pentagon from enacting the ban imposed by Trump early this year.

In his order, the judge said that the transgender troops, some with decades or meritorious service, had their rights to due process violated.

The prohibition was already effectively on hold while Secretary of Defence James Mattis convened a panel of experts to examine the implications of reinstating the ban, a move Mattis said in August would mean "current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place".