VA leaders roll back policy ensuring medical care for transgender vets

Outside advocates condemned a move by Veterans Affairs leaders to rescind a policy ensuring health care for transgender and intersex veterans, predicting “catastrophic mental and physical health consequences” for patients dependent on the services.

“[This] decision is a direct attack on the dignity and well-being of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex veterans, one that will have deadly outcomes,” said Lindsay Church, executive director of Minority Veterans of America. “This decision will force our community to defer or delay care and opt out of VA services altogether.

“This decision will exacerbate our already devastatingly high suicide rates and push more veterans into crisis for no reason other than hate. VA is abandoning those who have served, stripping us of critical health care protections, and sending a clear message that our lives and service to our country do not matter.”

On Friday, an internal memo announced the change to VA staff. Department leaders did not confirm the withdrawal of the policy but listed the rescission memo on a Veteran Health Administration website over the weekend.

The withdrawn directive — originally approved in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office — covered both medical care for transgender and intersex veterans as well as “dignity in care,” requiring that staff avoid using derogatory terms or misgendered language when assessing patients.

It also required data collection on those veterans, in an effort to compile more information on the community.

In a statement with the memo withdrawal, VA leaders said the move was made to conform with a presidential executive order from January requiring agencies to use “clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

They noted that many aspects of transgender care — including gender-affirming surgeries and cosmetic reconstruction surgeries — were not authorized under existing department regulations. Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration had taken steps toward providing those services but did not finalize those rules.

Acting Under Secretary for Health Steven Lieberman said in the memo that the department will still adhere to “its commitment to provide care to all veterans, including trans-identifying veterans.”

Officials promised care and treatment to veterans that are “compatible with generally accepted standards of medical practice and determined by appropriate health care professionals.” They did not provide specifics of what those limits mean.

Rachel Branaman, executive director of Modern Military Association of America called the policy rollback “a direct assault on the well-being of vulnerable LGBTQ+ veterans, jeopardizing their access to essential care.

“Combined with the administration’s planned cut of 80,000 VA employees, these actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for the nation’s commitment to those who have served.”

Democratic lawmakers said they will look for ways to stop the change. In a statement, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano, D-Calif., called the move “shameful and cruel” and accused the department of politicizing veterans’ care.

“The Veterans Health Administration should be focused on supporting and providing quality healthcare to all our veterans, not furthering Republicans’ obsessive attacks on the rights, dignity, and existence of the transgender community,” he said.

VA leaders said they will conduct a review of all transgender veteran care and “undergo the rulemaking process to revise the medical benefits package as deemed necessary.”

The National Center for Transgender Equality has estimated there are more than 134,000 transgender veterans in America today. VA officials in the past have estimated that at least 4,000 transgender veterans would use gender reassignment surgery options if they were made available.