“I’m not rude to anyone, but the VA should not focus on helping veterans try to change sex,” said VA secretary Doug Collins.
The U.S. Veterans Affairs Agency (VA) no longer provides gender discomfort to new patients, officials said on March 17.
VA doctors have stopped cross-sex hormone therapy for veterans diagnosed with gender dysphoria or symptoms of their condition.
The VA will also suspend offering services that veterans describe as designed to help veterans change sex, such as voice and communication training, breast binders, and wigs.
Virginia has never offered sex change surgeries and, according to the department, don’t continue to offer them.
“I’m not rude to anyone, but the VA should not focus on helping veterans try to change sex. The majority of veterans and Americans agree. That’s why this is the right decision,” VA executive director Doug Collins said in a statement. “All eligible veterans, including identified veterans, are always welcome in the VA and will always receive the benefits and services they have acquired under the law.
The VA provides medical care and other services to veterans. Currently, approximately 9.1 million veterans are registered with the VA’s healthcare system.
The VA estimates that around 0.1% of these veterans identify them as transgender.
According to the VA, savings from the new changes will help seriously injured veterans.
The agency said that U.S. government policies are to recognize two genders, male and female, and that it adheres to President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order.
“These genders have not changed and are based on fundamental and incontroversial reality,” Trump said in order.
The announcement comes after the VA retracted Directive 1341, issued in 2018. The directive stated that the VA policy is to “providing clinical, comprehensive, veteran-centric care. Confirm/affirm surgery.”
In a memorandum retracting the directive, the VA said veterans with a diagnosis or symptoms of gender discomfort “continue to receive comprehensive health care, including prevention and psychiatric care,” but emphasized that all others are not eligible for heterosexual hormones.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif), chairman of the Congressional Equality Caucus, was one of the critics of the new move.
He said in a statement that ending cross-sex hormones in many veterans “is unilaterally restricted for transgender veterans and ignores the clinical judgment of VA providers governing this care and the expertise of all major medical associations in the United States that support this care.”
Others welcomed the development.
“The VA should not be a battlefield in the war with the truth on the left. There are two god-given genders with unique needs and differences that do not disappear or reverse on the whims of awakened bureaucrat,” said the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee (R-Ill), according to Social Media Platform X. Meet the needs of American veterans. ”
