{"id":44155,"date":"2022-03-30T22:34:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T22:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/03\/30\/5-ways-to-make-veterans-affairs-more-friendly-to-trans-veterans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:05:33","slug":"5-ways-to-make-veterans-affairs-more-friendly-to-trans-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2022\/03\/30\/5-ways-to-make-veterans-affairs-more-friendly-to-trans-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways to make Veterans Affairs more friendly to trans veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility and this year I\u2019m reflecting on what it means to live as both a veteran and a trans person in 2022. On this day each spring, trans people celebrate the lives of those in our community who have made it this far and speak out about the ongoing discrimination we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year marks a decade since I returned home from military service. The scars of those years, literal and figurative, live at the forefront of my mind. Under \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d and looking as I do now \u2014 short hair, no makeup, and clothing and appearance others view as masculine \u2014 I received continuous abuse that I was forced to remain silent about. Today, I lead Minority Veterans of America, where I have found my voice to speak out against the abuses so many of us endured just to serve our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We launched Minority Vets 12 days after President Donald Trump announced by tweet he was banning transgender people from military service. But even as this policy got plenty of attention, many still don\u2019t realize there remains a ban on nonbinary people serving in their authentic gender<\/a> and an outright ban on intersex service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military\u2019s long-standing anti-LGBTQ+ policies have allowed a culture permissive of hate, discrimination, and identity-based harassment to fester and harm far too many who served. To see the effects, one need look no further than the statistics on suicide, military sexual trauma, and mental health crisis for LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans<\/a>. Our community has been disproportionately harmed and we carry those wounds with us. Unfortunately, we are also left to face a VA system that too often replicates the same harmful, discriminatory culture we hoped to leave behind and recover from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last December, while receiving healthcare at the VA Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, I was humiliated by a staff member who stood in the door of the women\u2019s restroom I was using, shouting repeated questions about a man in the women\u2019s restroom. That person he thought was a man was me. When we finally reached the understanding that I\u2019m not a man, he feigned an apology, explaining that this traumatic moment in my life was for the purpose of protecting VA patients and VA staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replied, \u201cI am<\/i> the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among trans veterans, these stories are commonplace. The VA purports to care for all veterans, only we keep finding that \u201call\u201d simply doesn\u2019t include veterans like us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after President Joe Biden lifted the onerous ban on binary transgender military service, a change we fought long and hard for, I faced deep fears when I came out to those closest to me as trans nonbinary. At 35 years old, something deep within me believed the world might stop and I\u2019d lose all I had fought so hard to build. Though it hasn\u2019t been easy, my community and those I call family have shown up to love me just as I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fear and pain so many of us feel, I\u2019m inspired by the allies and fellow advocates who ask what they can do to help demand change from VA and the veterans community more broadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are my answers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n