A group of transgender veterans filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to force the Department of Veteran Affairs to begin providing and paying for gender-affirming surgeries.
The Transgender American Veterans Association’s lawsuit seeks to force the VA to codify in its regulations verbal commitments the department made that it would provide these services, said Rebekah Eshler, the association’s president.
She said the surgeries are needed to reduce the risk of suicides, depression and psychological problems for transgender people living with gender dysphoria.
“It would also mean that these veterans would not have to seek this care through private physicians, which is often unaffordable,” the Transgender Veterans Association said in its lawsuit, which was reportedly filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Civil Service. Washington Circuit.
A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs said it does not comment on pending litigation. But he pointed to 2021 statements from Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, who said the VA was beginning a years-long regulatory process that would result in gender-affirming surgeries being performed. McDonough said the VA would use the time to “develop capacity to meet the surgical needs” of transgender veterans.
The decision, he said, will allow “transgender veterinarians to go through the full gender affirmation process with VA by their side.”
The veterans first petitioned for the rule change in May 2016. Since then, VA has held hearings and issued multiple proposed rules for cost-benefit analyses, the association said. But while the VA currently offers hormone therapy and other services to transgender veterans in some locations, it has failed to change the rules in a timely manner to provide any coverage for the surgeries, the group said.
“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.
Natalie Kastner, a 39-year-old disabled veteran from Texas, said she went to the VA for surgery in 2022. 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 transgender veterans receive, which can vary 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.