On Monday, citing Donald Trump’s “Defending Women” executive order, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it would “phase out treatment for gender dysphoria” by discontinuing hormone replacement therapy for patients not already in treatment.
The agency provides health care and benefits for about nine million veterans, tens of thousands of whom—by the VA’s estimate—identify as trans. Its press release says that the agency’s LGBTQ+ veteran care coordinators, who run its LGBTQ Health Program, would not be affected by the changes. But Pete Hegseth, Trump’s secretary of defense, has been vocal about his ire toward the LGBTQ community and his support for cutting VA health care.
Although the VA has never provided gender-affirming surgeries, it has been able to provide letters in support of veterans seeking them. That’s now on the chopping block.
“It’s infuriating,” a medical professional with the agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Mother Jones. “To be honest, I don’t understand how it’s allowed—how are they able to tell providers what they can and cannot treat?”
The announcement follows reporting in the Advocate on a Veterans Health Administration memo with similar provisions circulated on March 14, which rescinded the agency’s 2018 directive establishing health care standards for transgender and intersex veterans. In response to subsequent coverage by National Public Radio, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told NPR that there had been no policy change—but by Saturday night, the agency officially published the memo, which showed otherwise.
The VA’s press release claims that funds spent to treat transgender veterans will be redirected to treatment of paralyzed veterans and amputees, a supposed annual savings of $2.4 to $8.4 million, according to the RAND Corporation, or 0.04 to 0.13 percent of military health expenditures.
Notably, the memo rescinded VHA Directive 1341(4), “a policy for the respectful delivery of health care” for transgender and intersex veterans.The policy provides background on the transgender and intersex veteran populations and their healthcare needs, defines the “respectful delivery” of that care, and outlines what the VA benefits package covers. It can no longer be found on the VA’s website.
