The Department of Veterans Affairs is eliminating activity geared toward veterans’ gender identities and reclassifying its LGBTQ+ care coordinators, according to an internal memo made public this week.
The purpose of the June 12 memo, it says, is to bring the department into compliance with two executive orders signed last year at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term: one that ended the federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion activities and another that required the federal government to recognize two biological sexes.
Undersecretary for Health John Bartrum sent the directive to all Veterans Health Administration senior leaders, as well as directors of the 18 Veterans Integrated Service Networks and VA medical center directors.
“VA must ensure all veterans are treated based on their clinical needs and without discrimination,” Bartrum wrote in the memo. “This guidance ensures VHS will do just that.”
No VA funds, official time, facilities nor other resources should be used for meetings, trainings, working groups or activities “promoting gender-ideology or gender-identity,” Bartrum’s memo reads.
The memo also directs all of the VA’s LGTBQ+ care coordinators to be redesignated simply as “care coordinators,” who will be “dedicated to facilitating VA health care and benefits for all veterans, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex or sexual orientation.”
The VA employs at least one LGBTQ+ care coordinator for each of its 142 health care systems, according to the department. They’re responsible for creating a safe and respectful environment throughout each medical facility, spreading knowledge about LGBTQ+ services and educating and training staff.
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“VA staff play a critical role in ensuring that LGBTQ+ veterans receive the care they need and have earned in service to our country,” the VA’s website still read Thursday. “LGBTQ+ veterans have faced bias and discrimination, which can affect health. At Veterans Health Administration, we aim to make sure that LGBTQ+ veterans know that they are welcome.”
VA leaders were given until June 26 to confirm the noncompliant activities had ended.
The memo was first obtained by The Advocate, a news outlet dedicated to covering the LGBTQ+ community. The publication spoke to VA medical center providers who were concerned the new guidance could end PRIDE in All Who Served, a support group for LGTBQ+ veterans, as well as CBT-PRISM, a style of therapy designed to meet the effects of stigma and discrimination on LGBTQ+ veterans.
In addition to the other changes, the memo says that employees’ uniforms must be in compliance with the two executive orders. The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing more than 300,000 VA employees, said the guidance “orders employees to adhere to uniform and attire standards that may not align with their identities.”
Overall, the changes set forth in the memo will result in LGBTQ+ veterans avoiding treatment, Tiffany McPherson, the union’s PRIDE chair, argued in a statement.
“Some will avoid treatment — especially mental health services — out of fear of being misgendered, stigmatized, or treated with disrespect," McPherson said. “For a community already facing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide, those consequences aren’t hypothetical — they’re real, and the agency knows it.”
Last year, VA officials announced they would phase out all medical treatments for gender dysphoria, including hormone therapy and any surgical options for transgender veterans.
Nikki Wentling is a senior editor at Military Times. She's reported on veterans and military communities for nearly a decade and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.
