Trans vets sue government to pay for sex change ops – opening door to $100,000 taxpayer-funded surgeries for 163,000 non-conforming ex-service members
A group of transgender veterans has sued the Department of Veteran Affairs to have them perform and pay for gender reassignment surgery at taxpayer expense.
The Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) wants VA Secretary Denis McDonough to follow through on his promise to offer gender reassignment procedures to former service members.
The campaigners say this is ‘essential and life-saving medical care’ for a group prone to suicide and suffering from high rates of depression and psychological problems.
TAVA has approximately 163,000 trans veterans. The lawsuit could open the door to tens of thousands of claims for taxpayer-funded operations that cost more than the… $100,000 for top to bottom sex reversals.
Natalie Kastner, a 39-year-old disabled veteran from Texas, took a knife to her own testicles because the VA did not pay for a procedure
“Transgender veterans have waited far too long for the VA to provide the gender confirmation surgery that so many of us need to survive,” said TAVA President Rebekka Eshler.
“We hope this lawsuit will force Secretary McDonough to deliver on what he has promised us since 2021.” We are tired of empty promises. We need care.’
Campaigners said they filed their case Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.
The papers say gender reassignment procedures are “often unaffordable” and that many trans veterans cannot afford them through private doctors.
A VA spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Officials started changing the rules for trans procedures in 2021, but it’s a years-long process, he added.
The final decision would “allow transgender veterinarians to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side,” the spokesperson said.
The veterans first pushed for the rule change in May 2016.
The VA is providing hormones and other treatments to trans veterans in some locations, TAVA says.
Rebekka Eshler, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, says gender reassignment surgery is ‘lifesaving’
Gender reassignment operations, such as this one in France, pose many problems
It has held hearings and tried to calculate how much the operations would ultimately cost, but has dragged its feet on covering operations, the group added.
The costs of gender reassignment procedures vary greatly.
Breast removal surgery can cost around $8,000, but “bottom surgery” to remove or reshape genitals is more complicated and often costs more than $25,000.
Joshua Safer, a transgender specialist at Mount Sinai, said a complete sex change involving multiple procedures “can run in excess of $100,000.”
Eshler said some trans veterans were desperate for surgeries they couldn’t afford themselves.
“I get calls from veterans who are in such crisis that they call us because they can’t cope anymore and want to commit suicide,” Eshler said.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough should keep his promise to fund procedures, the group says
Doctors are only now beginning to understand all the consequences of gender reassignment surgery
Among them is Natalie Kastner, a 39-year-old disabled veteran from Texas who went to the VA for surgery in 2022, she told AP.
When doctors there denied her request, she said she grabbed a knife and attempted self-castration.
She hit an artery and almost died, but doctors were able to save her life.
“I didn’t go into that bathroom to kill myself,” she said.
‘I went to the bathroom to fix myself. I can only imagine how many others have done the same and were not so lucky and simply ruled a suicide.”
Eshler said she hopes the lawsuit will also standardize the care trans veterans receive, which varies from state to state and even clinic to clinic.
The lawsuit asks the court to compel the VA to respond to the 2016 petition within 30 days.
DailyMail.com was able to view the initial findings of a medical report expected later this year
Trans activists say sex change procedures save lives among a group prone to suicide.
Critics say this isn’t always the best way to solve the problems of people struggling with their gender dysphoria, which can occur for a number of reasons.
One of the first studies into the side effects of trans surgery last year cast doubt on the effectiveness of the procedures.
It revealed alarmingly high rates of postoperative pain, pain during intercourse and bladder problems, raising troubling questions for this new frontier of medicine.
A large majority – 81 percent – of those who have undergone gender confirmation surgery in the past five years say they suffered pain from simply moving in the weeks and months after going under the knife.
Researchers from the University of Florida and Brooks Rehabilitation, a nonprofit health care organization, have shown that more than half of trans-surgical patients experience pain during sex, and nearly a third have no control over their bladder.