Re: UGLY MENTALLY ILL transgender veterans sue to have gender-affirming surgery covered by Department of Veteran Affairs

[Progressive Biden-Harris Woke DEI GAY SCUM]

In article <uosuks$26qid$1...@dont-email.me>

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 lawsuit from the Transgender American Veterans Association seeks
to compel the VA to codify in its regulations verbal assurances the
department has made that it would begin providing those services,
said Rebekka Eshler, the president of the association.

She said the surgeries are needed to reduce the risk of suicides,
depression, and psychological distress for transgender people who
live with gender dysphoria.

“It would also mean that those veterans do not have to seek this
care through private doctors, which is often prohibitively
expensive,” the transgender veterans association said in its
lawsuit, which it said was filed in the United States Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.

A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs said it does
not comment on ongoing litigation. But he pointed to 2021 statements
from Veteran Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, who said the VA was
beginning a years long rulemaking process that would result in
providing gender-affirming surgeries. 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 vets to go through
the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side."

The veterans first petitioned for the rule change in May of 2016.
Since then, has VA has held hearings and prepared multiple proposed
rules for cost-benefit analysis, the association said. But while the
VA currently provides hormone therapy and other services to
transgender veterans at some locations, it has failed to change its
rules in a timely manner and provide any coverage for the surgeries,
the group said.

“I get phone calls from veterans that are so in crisis that they are
calling us because they can't handle it anymore and they are wanting
to go kill themselves,” Eshler said.

Natalie Kastner, a 39-year-old disabled veteran from Texas, said she
went to the VA in 2022 seeking surgery. When doctors there denied
her request, she said she took a knife and attempted self
castration. She hit an artery and almost died, but doctors were able
to save her life.

“I did not go into that bathroom looking to kill myself,” she said.
“I went into that bathroom looking to fix myself. I can only imagine
how many others have done the same and have not been so lucky and
have simply been listed as a suicide.”

Eshler said she hopes the lawsuit also will standardize the care
transgender veterans receive, which said said 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.

https://news.yahoo.com/transgender-veterans-sue-gender-affirming-
152415496.html