Gender-Affirming Care for Veterans is Under Attack. Here's How We're Fighting Back.

Like many transgender people, the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump was a deeply alarming and concerning turn for me in our country’s politics. At the time, I was an active-duty air mechanic in my seventh year of service in the United States Air Force. Unable to organize and protest in the streets — as millions did in the wake of that election and Trump’s disastrous presidency — and following the end of my service, I fought to organize on behalf of the 134,000 transgender veterans like myself with the Transgender American Veterans Association.

For years, transgender veterans have fought for the Department of Veterans Affairs to end its discriminatory restrictions on the forms of gender-affirming care that are provided by VA clinics and covered by VA insurance. But now, political extremists in Congress threaten to undo that progress and defund health care not only for transgender veterans, but for hundreds of thousands of transgender people who benefit from federally-funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Transgender people in states across the country have had their health care threatened and their dignity denied by state-level restrictions targeting Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, banning it for transgender people under 18, and using the power of the state to persecute providers that support transgender people. Increasingly, however, these political attacks are going national, led by a bill introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that would bar any federal funds from going to gender-affirming care, censor information about this care from medical schools and research institutions, and make it a felony for any medical provider to support a transgender person under 18.

Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures

In the last few years states have advanced a record number of bills that attack LGBTQ rights, especially transgender youth. The ACLU is tracking...

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

These same members of Congress have also latched onto the annual budget process as a new battlefield in this war against transgender people. Members of the House of Representatives have shoehorned in amendments into the federal budget that would defund insurance coverage for transgender people of any age in programs like Medicaid and Medicare and, in July, the House passed a version of the budget for Veterans Affairs that would deny myself and transgender veterans like me any access to medical care treating gender dysphoria.

The results of these amendments would be emotionally devastating and physically life-threatening. If cut off from this care, many transgender veterans will be forced to endure the disastrous effects of untreated gender dysphoria, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation as a result of physical changes and effects we know run counter to our gender identity. Support for this care spans the entire mainstream of the medical community, and I can personally attest to the importance of this care to my safety, my dignity, and my freedom to thrive in this world.

It is far from a coincidence these restrictions on my health care and bodily autonomy are being proposed right alongside restrictions on abortion access and support for active-duty recruits who need abortion care. The repeal of Roe v. Wade was the beginning of a slippery slope of human rights violations for transgender people and cisgender people alike. If we only fight issues in the identity we cling to most, we not only negate those parts of ourselves, but neglect the communities in need around us. Our government is actively stripping its citizens of our rights and we are getting what we are due. We are oppressed together; we fight back together.

To help us fight back, I’m urging you to send a message to your member of Congress — regardless of party — to stand up and fight back against these baseless and life-threatening attacks on transgender people’s safety, dignity, and autonomy. I’m proud to organize with TAVA and am consistently amazed at the strength and tenacity of my fellow transgender veterans. But none of us are as strong as all of us, and we need your help to defend equality and freedom for all.

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today

Trump's Attempt to Unilaterally Control State and Local Funding is Dangerous, Dumb, and Undemocratic

The Trump administration has not been subtle in its desire to use federal funding for political punishment. Whether threatening to cut off grants to sanctuary cities, to block financial assistance to states that push back against the president’s demands, or to freeze all federal grants and loans for social services across the country, Trump and his allies want us to believe they can wield the federal budget like a weapon. The reality is that the administration’s ability to withhold or condition funding is far more limited than they let on. The Constitution, Supreme Court precedent, and long-standing federal law stand firmly in the way of this brazen abuse of presidential power. Trump’s Attempted Funding Freeze? Blocked Immediately A week into his second administration, Trump attempted to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans that fund a vast array of critical services already approved by Congress. If allowed to go into effect, this unprecedented and far-reaching...

Documents Reveal Confusion and Lack of Training in Texas Execution

As Texas seeks to execute Carl Buntion today and Melissa Lucio next week, it is worth reflecting on the grave and irreversible failures that occurred when the state executed Quintin Jones on May 19, 2021. For the first time in its history — and in violation of a federal court’s directive and the Texas Administrative Code — Texas excluded the media from witnessing the state’s execution of Quintin Jones. In the months that followed, Texas executed two additional people without providing any assurance that the underlying dysfunction causing errors at Mr. Jones’ execution were addressed. This is particularly concerning given that Texas has executed far more people than any other state and has botched numerous executions. The First Amendment guarantees the public and the press have a right to observe executions. Media access to executions is a critical form of public oversight as the government exerts its power to end a human life. Consistent with Texas policy, two reporters travelled t...

The Supreme Court Declined a Protestors' Rights Case. Here's What You Need to Know.

The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case, Mckesson v. Doe , that could have affirmed that the First Amendment protects protest organizers from being held liable for illegal actions committed by others present that organizers did not direct or intend. The high court’s decision to not hear the case at this time left in place an opinion by the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, that said a protest organizer could be liable for the independent, violent actions of others based on nothing more than a showing of negligence. Across the country, many people have expressed concern about how the Supreme Court’s decision not to review, or hear, the case at this stage could impact the right to protest. The ACLU, which asked the court to take up the case, breaks down what the court’s denial of review means. What Happened in Mckesson v. Doe? The case, Mckesson v. Doe , was brought by a police officer against DeRay Mckesson , a prominent civil rights activi...

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