‘The View’ Hosts Show Solidarity With Trans Service Member Forced Out by Trump

The cohosts of The View continued their celebration of Pride Month on Thursday’s (June 25) episode by announcing their solidarity with Emily Shilling, the trans commander in the U.S. Navy who is currently fighting in the courts against Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth‘s policy against transgender service members.

Whoopi Goldberg announced the show’s celebration of Shilling, introducing her as “The highest-ranking transgender line officer in the U.S. Navy, Emily ‘Hawking’ Shilling.”

Then, Sara Haines reviewed her story, saying, “Emily Shilling completed 60 combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, spanning two decades, all driven by the Navy’s former motto, which she embraced wholeheartedly, ‘a global force for good.’ She stood by that pledge in 2019, defying the ban on transgender service members by coming out to her superiors.”

Haines continued, “The Navy moved to force her out until President Biden reversed the policy in 2021. But that ban was reinstated when President Trump returned to the White House in 2025. She says she was forced to retire, but isn’t going without a fight. As the lead plaintiff in Shilling V. The United States, a federal appeals court ruled the ban unconstitutional earlier this month. In her next battleground, despite an uncertain future, Shilling ‘finds hope in simply still being here, able to speak the truth out loud,’ and says, ‘When we have stayed loud and connected and human, we have never lost.”

After applause from the audience, Goldberg encouraged her, saying, “You keep fighting, Emily. We’re going to keep fighting, too.”

“The courts need to keep fighting,” Joy Behar agreed.

In a 2025 interview with PBS, Shilling said of her fight, “So far, we have thousands of transgender troops currently serving in our armed forces today, and they are deployed across the world, embedded in units today. And these executive orders and the discussion around transgender service has an immediate effect on them, from overzealous commanders who are taking executive orders as action, to just a detriment to the morale of these individuals and their ability to focus on the mission that they have signed up to volunteer for.”

In 2025, the Supreme Court granted the government’s stay in the case to avoid the preliminary injunction that previously blocked Trump’s ban against transgender service members, while the case proceeded to the 9th Circuit. That trial is expected to take place in November, according to Shilling’s attorneys.

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC