The U.S. Veteran Affairs Bureau building in Washington, DC. Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images hides captions
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The Veterans Affairs Bureau on Friday protected gender-affirming healthcare provided to transgender veterans and reversed policies that caused confusion and fear in the community.
In an internal VA memo seen on NPR Friday, the VA said it is withdrawing directive 1341, which includes detailed guidance on the types of care that Transgender veterans can receive at VA facilities. The policy also directed healthcare providers to use pronouns that veterans prefer, and to use bathrooms and assign rooms according to their self-identified gender.
An internal memo said the withdrawal of the directive “will not affect existing clinical guidance,” and the VA “supports our commitment to providing care to all veterans.”
After the story was released, VA reporter spokesman Peter Casperowitz contacted NPR and denied any policy changes. He did not respond to NPR's request to verify the reliability of internal memos that announced changes to its policy before or after publication of NPR stories.
Despite that denial, a public link to VHA directive 1341 appears to lead to a page called “File not found” on Saturday afternoon.
In a statement Saturday, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) said the VA “allows veterans to become pawns in the president's cruel political game.”
“The VA's decision to withdraw its directive to provide health care to transgender and intersex veterans, and the VA's announcement, is taking additional steps to create rules to revive the care provided to transgender veterans,” said Takano, a fugitive, cruel and top ranking Democrat on the Veterans Committee.
Supporters were prepared to retract the order.
“It's dishonest,” says Lindsay Church, executive director of American advocacy group Minority Veterans. “Transgender veterans need to ask themselves now.
Transgender people make up a small percentage of the population, but research suggests that they are more likely to serve the military.
A VA study shows that veterans who are sexual minorities, including LGBTQIA, non-binary, intersex, and other veterans, are more likely to take their lives than the average veteran. That number is higher for trans veterans. Veterans have a higher average suicide rate than the general population.
In an internal memo, the VA said “we will conduct a comprehensive care review regarding identifying veterans and undergo a rule-making process to modify any medical benefit packages that we believe are needed.”
The church said supporters of these veterans could mean a wholesale rollback on transgender health in the VA.
VA currently offers gender-based healthcare, including hormone therapy, prosthetic devices, and tools to support transgender veterans who exist as gender identity in choice.
The VA does not offer gender-affirming surgeries, but the withdrawn order stipulates that veterans can undergo surgery for other medical conditions that happen to affirm the gender, such as procedures that reduce the risk of cancer.
Even before the VA revoked directive 1341 on Friday, VA staff told NPR that they were receiving more calls from trans veterans worried about trusting their health care providers.
In the wake of a White House executive order that now states its US policy of “recognizing two genders, male and female,” the VA has removed references to several website groups and deleted internal documents for its health care system.
The VA has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the new directive.
NPR's Quil Lawrence contributed to this report
