One of President Donald Trump’s (R) first acts when he reassumed office this year was to ban transgender people from serving in the military. Months later, the Department of Veterans Affairs followed suit with a ban on medical insurance coverage for gender-affirming care.
One transgender veteran is suing the VA in an attempt to get her treatment back.
The biggest battle
Right out of high school, Jane Doe joined the military and spent 11 years in the Army and Army National Guard. When she left the service earlier this year, she was awarded a 100% service-connected disability rating — that's the highest disability rating the VA gives out. It’s reserved for veterans who were seriously injured while in the service. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The toughest battle she faced was the battle to become her true self.
“I had this notion in my head from when I was in the military: I have to be tough, I have to be strong,” Doe said. “And this doesn't feel like the toughness that I was programmed with, for lack of a better way of putting it.”
WSHU granted her anonymity for this story due to her fear of retaliation from the Defense Department and, as she puts it, society writ large.
In 2017, while still in the service, Doe was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The Mayo Clinic describes it as a feeling of distress that can happen when a person’s gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.
“It actually took more toughness to go through with transitioning than it did being in the military,” Doe said.
Once she came out, she was prescribed hormone replacement therapy, and then served another seven years. And, when it was time to retire, it was her understanding that her disability rating granted her VA-sponsored health care, including HRT, for the foreseeable future.
But on March 17, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced his department would start phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria.
“Stabbed in the back”
In the decision announcement, Collins cited an executive order from President Trump declaring that there are only two genders, and that they are “unchangeable.”
“I mean no disrespect to anyone, but VA should not be focused on helping veterans attempt to change their sex,” Collins said. “The vast majority of veterans and Americans agree, which is why this is the right decision. All eligible veterans, including trans-identified veterans, will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law. But if Veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.”
The VA would only continue to offer the medication to people who were already receiving it from them. Since Doe was in the process of shifting from military health care to VA health care, she was dropped from coverage for the meds.
That means Doe, who can’t work because of her service-related disability, has to come up with a way to pay for her own medication. It can cost up to $1,000 a month.
“It's disheartening,” Doe said. “It makes me feel sad that we're at this point now where we have to be fighting for this, which was something that was promised, and then was taken away on a whim.”
Doe appealed the decision, but hasn’t heard back. So, she’s suing the VA, with help from Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic.
Donovan Bendana and Hillary Browning, recent Yale law graduates and members of the clinic, are representing Doe.
They say the VA’s decision to cancel health care for transgender vets violates the Constitution and federal laws.
“They provided no reason whatsoever for why they were singling out this one medical condition, gender dysphoria, and refusing to provide any sort of healthcare coverage for it,” Bendana said.
The Defense Department estimates only around 0.2% of its service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — that’s less than 5,000 out of 2 million active duty troops. The DOD and the VA have never paid for gender reassignment surgery.
“Hormone replacement therapy is not medical care that is only applied to people who are transgender,” Browning said. “They're not getting rid of that as an option for medical care. So anyone else who's not transgender, who might need hormone replacement therapy, can still access it. They’re only denying it for transgender veterans.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the VA’s decision unlawful and stop it from using it against Doe and other transgender veterans. Her lawyers say they don’t know how long a decision will take, but time is of the essence.
Without help, Doe estimates she’ll run out of medication before the end of the summer. Her doctors say that could be catastrophic for her physical and mental health.
Update: The Department of Veterans Affairs declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
