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AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File |
A transgender veterans advocacy group sued the U.S. government Thursday for excluding gender-confirmation surgery from the health benefits of former service members.
The Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over the group’s 2016 petition that asked the VA to start the process to alter its health benefits to cover gender-confirmation surgery for trans veterans.
It has been nearly eight years since TAVA submitted the petition and more than two years since VA Secretary Denis McDonough pledged to make such care available, but the department has yet to make any moves on the matter.
TAVA’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., seeks to compel the VA to soon respond to the 2016 petition.
“Three years ago today, President Biden repealed the military’s ban on transgender service members,” TAVA President Rebekka Eshler said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Yet when we return from service, we do not receive the same level of healthcare from the VA that other veterans do. The natural next step toward transgender people’s true inclusion in the military is for the VA to remedy this gap. Transgender veterans have waited far too long for the VA to provide the gender-affirming surgery so many of us need to survive.” --->READ MORE HERE
The Transgender American Veterans Association filed a federal lawsuit this week demanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs foot the bill for their sex-change surgeries.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, follows a letter sent out by the TAVA on last November’s ‘Transgender Day of Remembrance’ demanding that the VA start paying for the surgeries or face legal action.
“Three years ago today, President Biden repealed the military’s ban on transgender service members. Yet, when we return from service, we do not receive the same level of healthcare from the VA that other veterans do,” said Rebekka Eshler, TAVA president, in a media release.
“The natural step toward transgender people’s true inclusion in the military is for the VA to remedy this gap. Transgender veterans have waited far too long for the VA to provide the gender-affirming surgery so many of us need to survive.”
Also quoted in the release was Natalie Kastner, a TAVA member who claims to be at greater risk without access to surgery than when active in the military.
“VA’s failure to provide gender-confirmation surgery has been more dangerous for me than my time in the service,” Kastner explained.
“Without VA coverage for this surgery, I was financially out of options. I tried to perform my own gender-affirming surgery at home, without any medical training,” Kastner said.
“Were it not for the emergency room care, I would have lost my life. I was told that the VA would take care of me because I was willing to risk my life for this country. Instead, I was safer in the service than I am now.” --->READ MORE HERE
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