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Trans Veterans Will Now Be Able to Access Life-Saving Gender Confirmation Surgery


 

Trans veterans will soon be able to access gender-confirmation surgery through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), in a reversal of a longstanding ban on the procedures.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough made the landmark announcement at a Pride event at Florida’s Orlando Vet Center on Saturday. McDonough told those gathered that the department is “taking the first necessary steps” to cover gender-affirming surgeries, “thereby allowing transgender vets to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA at their side.”

The new guidelines for coverage will reportedly take at least two years to roll out, and a spokesperson told the Washington Post that the expansion will begin this summer. The lengthy timeline, according to McDonough, is in order to “ensure that the services made available to veterans meet VA’s rigorous standards for quality health care.”

“This time will allow VA to develop capacity to meet the surgical needs that transgender Veterans have called for and deserved for a long time, and I am proud to begin the process of delivering it,” McDonough added, in comments originally reported by Slate.

LGBTQ+ advocates applauded the move, while urging for an expedited review process in order to implement coverage for the life-saving procedure as quickly as possible.

“Everyone should have access to the health care they need to live healthy, happy lives,” said Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), in a statement. “We know that this is just the beginning of a long process, but it’s another step in the Biden administration’s effort to fight discrimination against transgender people, including our transgender veterans.”

“Every veteran deserves to have access to the health care that they need,” she added, “and the VA is working to make sure that includes transgender veterans as well.”

Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Sasha Buchert agreed, saying that the expanded coverage would “provide continuity of care for transgender service members and will ensure we don’t turn our backs on transgender veterans who served our country when they need lifesaving medically necessary health care.”

“While we recognize the importance of moving forward methodically, we urge the VA to recognize in this process the needs of transgender veterans who have already waited too long for the health care they deserve,” Buchert said in a statement.

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The move represents a reversal of the prior administration’s treatment of trans servicemembers. Former President Donald Trump issued a ban on trans people serving in the military in 2019, citing the “tremendous medical costs” of transition-related care. This is despite the fact that an internal study commissioned by the Pentagon in 2016 found that the cost of covering medically necessary procedures for trans troops would add an additional $2.4 million and $8.4 million to the annual budget, a .13% increase.

President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s trans military ban during his first week in office. In a January 25 executive order, he cited “substantial evidence that allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military does not have any meaningful negative impact on the armed forces.”

The extension of full health care benefits to trans members of the military is also a reversal of a discriminatory policy that predates the Trump administration as well. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the military began providing mental health services and hormone therapy for trans veterans in 2013, but specifically denied coverage of gender-affirming surgery.

According to an estimate from the LGBTQ+ think tank Palm Center, over 15,000 trans people are serving in the military — which officially allowed trans troops to begin open enlistment in April. Given the size of that population, previous research found that the VA is the largest provider of trans health care in the country.

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