Transgender veterans suing the Department of Veterans Affairs

| January 27, 2024

The Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) initiated a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. The lawsuit involves the delay in providing gender affirming surgery. This delay in providing this type of service keeps transgender veterans in “limbo.” Bekky Eshler, the organization’s president, implied that transgendered veterans not feeling “at home” with their natural gender may be tempted to end their lives.

From military.com:

In a lawsuit being filed Thursday, the Transgender American Veterans Association, or TAVA, accused the VA of leaving transgender veterans in a state of limbo with vague promises to eventually offer the often lifesaving surgeries.

“What am I supposed to tell my transgender veterans that are trying to commit suicide because they can’t see themselves in their body?” Bekky Eshler, president of TAVA, told Military.com in a phone interview. “We’ve been trying to be friendly with the VA. We’ve worked with them really well. But at the end of the day, you got to keep your promises.”

In June 2021, VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced the department would cover gender-affirmation surgeries for transgender veterans, part of a flurry of moves in the early days of the Biden administration to signal support for LGBTQ+ Americans. President Joe Biden also lifted the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in the military exactly three years ago Thursday, an anniversary the lawsuit intentionally coincides with.

McDonough’s announcement kicked off a formal rulemaking process, a way to change federal regulations that can sometimes take years. The department typically updates medical coverage through the rulemaking process.

At the time of McDonough’s announcement, the VA said it expected the rulemaking process for transgender surgeries to take about two years. But two years later, the department said it had no timeline for offering the procedures. In June, McDonough said the policy was awaiting his approval without explaining why he was delaying his decision.

Additional information in this article can be obtained on military.com.

Category: Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department

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5JC

Please, please, please move to the front of the line the guys that want their dicks and balls chopped off. I’ll take up a collection.

Roh-Dog

I got fife on it!*

*only if the surgery is done in Tijuana so as to maximize the ‘return on “investment”‘.

Last edited 10 months ago by Roh-Dog
5JC

I like how you think. Every vet will get a genuine free engraved Taxco silver watch to commemorate the occasion. It will say for example; “RADM’s Spunky’s toolbox 1974-2024, RIP – XXOOXX Rachel

HT3

What am I supposed to tell my transgender veterans that are trying to commit suicide because they can’t see themselves in their body?
How about that cutting their dicks off and creating hole that has to be exercised daily or it will close up is NOT the answer. Having an open wound where your balls used to be is mutilation. That money should to go some hero that got busted up in the defense this country.
There is NO FUCKING way that tranny surgery should be covered because rejecting who you are or because of some weird sexual fetish did not happen as a result of military service and is NOT the obligation of the US taxpayer.

Roh-Dog

“What am I supposed to tell my transgender veterans that are trying to commit suicide…”

I’ll take the lower road, got many suggestions on what… but I’ve been chastised here for requesting someone “eject from this planet expeditiously“.

So I won’t. But I’m thinking about tell’n’m.

Last edited 10 months ago by Roh-Dog
5JC

I took one for the team.

rgr769

What I would tell them is “get after it.”

e.conboy

Yo!

5JC

Don’t worry. If it is a hole they will exercise it daily, especially since they are tired of the other one.

Stacy0311

What am I supposed to tell my transgender veterans that are trying to commit suicide because they can’t see themselves in their body?

I’m guessing “Chair, rope. Some assembly required” isn’t the correct answer?

Odie

So, they are whiney bitches.

KoB

I self identify as a pissed off taxpayer. My pronouns are f*ck/off. I am not responsible for your state of confusion and do not feel as if I have to pay for your “elective” surgery.

Odie

T shirts need to be made and sold. In the memo line for the check written when paying taxes on your new business, it should include the line f*ck /off.

Forest Bondurant

A grown-up who threatens to kill themselves if they dont get their way is akin to a child who says theyll just hold their breath if they dont get their way

Fucking pathetic.

Anonymous

Hence the meme calling such blackmail’s bluff:
comment image

Green Thumb

Tough one.

I assume this would be a tort. Also, one would have to show malpractice by the VA resulting in injury.

They might argue that not performing the procedure is an “injury” if already being administered hormone therapy. Stretch, but a possibility.

I am an educated man, but law and “barracks law” are not my fortes.

Any current or former JD’s care to comment?

rgr769

Riddle me this, why is this elective surgery to be provided by the VA when becoming a trannie has nothing to do with any service connected ailment or injury?

5JC

They are 100% disabled because of Peety S. Dee. It stems from the time they got made fun of in the shower at BCT because of their tiny wee-wee and had to go AWOL to deal with it.

rgr769

Welp, the “T” in PTSD stands for trauma. If having a small wee-wee is traumatic, then a large portion of the men on the planet would have the disorder, and there would be a lot more money to be made in these penis enhancement scams.

David

Scams?

Damnit….

rgr769

And I am a JD. Just call me Doctor R769. But I have no idea why this would be covered by VA healthcare. Such elective surgeries have never been covered by conventional health insurance. I know a woman who paid thousands for a boob job, as she was almost flat chested. Emotionally, she felt much better about her body image after her new profile. What about nose jobs, is the VA going to perform those? How about penis enhancement? Some dudes will feel better with a larger Johnson.

SFC D

I only know my boat was faster with a bigger Johnson.

rgr769

Ahh, but don’t the sympathetic ladies tell us size isn’t everything.

Odie

They also tell us it happens to everybody.

Roh-Dog

Don’t know if it’s Evinrude to ask, 2 or 4-stroke?

KoB

Short Stroke Hit or Miss Engine…with a leaky valve…
The exhaust needs work, too.

Last edited 10 months ago by KoB
Roh-Dog

Some people think the exhaust always needs work.

I’m not to stern to think my tack is the best heading, I just like taut trim and clean tang.

Iff’n fellas wanna get all worried about whats happening on the transom?

Whatever cranks your windlass.

Edit: one MF a in ‘fellas’. He almost got away with a no edit!

Last edited 10 months ago by Roh-Dog
KoB

Taunt, trim, and clean…the only danger zone to launch your torpedo into

Roh-Dog

Gotta keep your line out of the bilge, buddy.

KoB

FIRST rule of Gun Bunnying is to keep your tube clean.

Odie

Boooooo 😄

Green Thumb

Are you a JD?

If so, define tort. I do not think they can sue the VA.

Aside, if they can argue a problem that that is service connected, then they can gain ground.

Knew a woman years back that had low self-esteem because of her small breast size (barrack’s bitch to boot).

Got out, got bigger tits (VA -taxpayer dime) and moved on in life.

There is the precedent. Sad, but true.

Thoughts?

rgr769

A tort is merely a civil wrongdoing for which there is a civil cause of action. Examples are negligent caused injury, assault, battery, fraud, libel, slander, and a myriad of other civil wrongful conduct which may or may not constitute crimes. In order to effectively sue a state or federal agency one must comply with the statutory tort claims act. The federal government agencies are immune from suit for any claims that are outside the act. For example, it cannot be sued for battery.

Green Thumb

Agree.

Hence the uphill battle here.

Green Thumb

And you should assume that I achieved the hierarchy in education moving forward.

rgr769

What hierarchy would that be?

Green Thumb

The four-square box.

timactual

My question, too. But I guess this new-fangled volunteer Army must be a bit different than the bad old draftee army; “Be all that you can be” indeed. Then again, VA is now basically a welfare program for anybody who wore a uniform for 2 years.

Roh-Dog

Welfare programs all the way down:
Banks, MIC, teachers, doctors, lawers, medical industry, auto makers, bridge builders, states, towns, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers…

And there’s the rub-a-dub-rub: no one wants their sacred ox gored.

David

Only if you’re the right somebody. Too many vets can’t even get into the VA. Means test, insufficient documentation when service related things crop up years later (you remember the name of the doc you saw in 1982 at a long-closed post?), anything else they can find – unless you’re an LGBTQRST thrown out with shin splints after a few months in service – then you’re getting elective surgery thrown at you.

timactual

“Means test,…”

Yeah, most welfare programs are means tested. Keeps some of the freeloaders out, anyway.

Odie

I think it is the navy (maybe army, can’t remember where I recently read it) that’s going to allow high school drop outs to enlist to get their numbers up for recruiting. Hell, if high school was so hard, do they think the military will be any easier?

Anonymous

Game over, man! Game over!

Anonymous

Leftist pandering.

Anonymous

Gosh, you mean they have to establish the gender dysphoria was service-connected before the VA does the sex change. I’m shocked! Shocked! /sarc

SFC D

Awesome. I can get trans surgery from the VA, but try and get compensation for two kinds of cancer and you get, “yeah, the Army probably caused that. Thanks for dropping by, it’s not disabling.”

RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

Or….” Loading CF18s for almost a decade couldn’t have possibly ruined your back”

SFC D

Deteriorated discs from 24 years of building antennas got me 10%.

PNW ATC

We used to give y’all parts for your jets when on Det in Key West. The beers you gave in return was appreciated.

5JC

Or Neuropathy in your feet from marching thousands of miles with a heavy pack

Or non stop ringing in the ears from defective ear plugs, combined with gunfire

Lots of other things too. But tell them you have bad feels about your twig and cherries, and they will cut it right off.

Sapper3307

Improving the gene pool, send Lars.

OIP-98
MustangCryppie

Hey! The trannies want this all to happen mosh skosh rikki tik so that they can minimize the amount of time they have to spend in the icky military…and never ever deploy!!!

Hack Stone

Transgender veterans say they just want to be treated the same as heterosexual veterans. Congratulations, you are. 🥴

Anonymous

Sucks, don’t it?
comment image

SFC D

Equality. It’s a real motherfucker sometimes.

AW1Ed

Well played, Hack.

timactual

How many members does Transgender American Veterans Association have?.

Answer: more than they want

(Not a good joke, but I am having an off day)

5JC

That is because many of their members are fake.

Roh-Dog

To be fair, they’re all fakes, on one level or another.

Odie

Insert rim shot here.

Wilson

In better times freaks like these would have been gassed.

RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

I volunteer to open the valve!

Odie

I’ll close the door and help hold it closed.

Odie

Or ignored. It didn’t work for Klinger.

Wilson

They no longer allow anyone to ignore them. They demand that others embrace and subsidize their chosen lifestyle.

Amateur Historian

Hey, I found a guy who might be willing to do the penectomy for either free or cheap (disclaimer: I’m personally not a fan of the show. I was just forced to watch a few scenes by family members):

Graybeard

We should never let the mentally ill into the military or schools.
They are disconnected from reality and therefore cannot function normally.
Get them mental help, not surgery.

Anonymous

Not encouraging deluded ideas would’ve been healthier:
comment image

Hack Stone

“What am I supposed to tell my transgender veterans that are trying to commit suicide because they can’t see themselves in their body?” Bekky Eshler, president of TAVA, told Military.com in a phone interview.

David

“HER veterans?” Who died and made her a f***” general?

fm2176

I really struggle to understand how transgender people are no longer considered to have a mental illness. If you feel out of place in your own body, that presents a problem. If you were physically and, perhaps more importantly, mentally fit for enlistment or commissioning, made it through Initial Entry Training, and went on to serve honorably in your “assigned” gender, why are there suddenly life-threatening issues after a few years of service? For Vets, how does one suddenly realize, often when they are well past their sexual prime, that they were never their biological sex, but rather some self-proclaimed gender?

Look at the Green Beret women’s MMA fighter, or the Navy SEAL. You mean to tell me that those two “women” passed countless physical and mental tests, became qualified in two of America’s most elite military specialties in an Alpha Male dominated culture, all while knowing they are females at heart. Because the, the, feelz. They found much success as men, but there’s something more. Maybe it’s craving attention as a First, maybe it’s a feeling of inadequacy, leading to them going from being mediocre males to top-level “females”. Maybe it’s some weird fetish, especially for those who’ve married and remain so. I guess that adds some spice to the bedroom after 30 years and five kids. Maybe some (I doubt anything approaching a majority) actually have held closeted thoughts for decades, surviving the male-dominated world that is the bulk of the military, and now realizing that their best days are behind them and “Michelle” posed as Michael for far too long. If Michael has to stay, Michelle will make sure he’s not alive to do so. Trans personas holding biology hostage, if you will.

fm2176

Here’s another take:

Rambo served a couple of decades and retired as himself. Ten years later, Rambo realizes she’s been Rambette all along. Now in her 50s, Rambette feels entitled to the VA benefits earned by Rambo, despite earning those benefits and going into that system as a male. Here’s the problem, if Rambette enlisted as Rambo under false pretenses, after all she knew she was a girl even in adolescence, she fraudulently enlisted. I know there are new rules nowadays for everyone on the gender spectrum, but rules are rules. Rambette never served, Rambo did. You can run around in circles trying to find some kind of logic in the trans nonsense.

The VA has earned much notoriety for being a little less than proficient at rendering care for Veterans. Taking up a significant portion of their budget to hire Dr. Feelgood–the world’s preeminent expert on turning hotdogs into buns and vice versa–is only going to further strain an already strained system. Also, exactly how much in demand are these services. I don’t see the average VA Medical Center being overwhelmed with “gender-affirming care” appointments, much less painful surgeries that will permanently alter people’s bodies.

I’ve seen some very attractive older women, but for the most part, you have to give it up after a while. Look at Madonna, she should have retired her face about 20 years ago. I’ve never seen any older trans person that looks even remotely natural, much less attractive, and the younger ones that might be able to pull it off when they’re in their early 20s will eventually reap the effects of countless “facial feminization” and other surgeries they have to appear even remotely feminine. Imagine a 45-year-old Mulvaney. We already see what geriatric transpeople look like with Caitlyn Jenner. 🤢 🤮

Last edited 10 months ago by fm2176
AW1 Rod

A “Transgender Veterans’ Association”? REALLY???

So, do they offer a range of benefits and services tailored to trannies and homos?

Odie

The TVA only serves bud light.

Hack Stone

Hack Stone does not understand why people are so upset with Bud Light placing an image of Dylan Mulvaney on their product. His face has been on literally thousands of cans before that.

Green Thumb

Phil Monkress has had his face knuckles deep in many man cans as well.

John Seabee

Well, I offer this… If they want sympathy, look in the Websters Dictionary between Shit and Syphilis.

Stacy0311

TAVA? Both of them have been denied care? Boo fucking hoo.
Is you’re trannyism service connected? No? Then, fuck you, back of the line.

Make the Phoenix VA Hospital the designated Tranny Care Center of Excellence.

The problem will solve itself 😉

Roh-Dog

I found it. It’s all Monty Python’s fault.

Should’ve known those silly gits were at root of this!:

Last edited 10 months ago by Roh-Dog
NHSparky

Dude (I guess), I couldn’t get fucking Motrin, much less any medical treatment for shit I broke/fucked up back in the day, and you want radical (and unnecessary) surgery because, “reasons”?

GTFOH.

Anonymous

And their dumbass mascot, too:
comment image?w=400

Slow Joe

They can eat a bag of dicks!

Meanwhile, I have to pay 5k for one of my kids’ dental braces because Tricare doesn’t cover it.

Odie

They would enjoy eating those. I guess they feel they’re less queer if they preface it by identifying as a woman.

Old tanker

Tell Denis McDonough to pay the tab. He and president dementia opened the door so they can pay the bill. I’m sure hunter can sell some more paintings to the chinese to help out.

Major Tuddy

So, we’re bigots if we don’t go along with some freak’s delusion? Here’s what I say to that.

Look, I’m Gen-X; I grew up with Boy George, Annie Lennox, David Bowie, Grace Jones, k. d. lang, Sinead O’Connor, and many others. I have no problem with the gender non-comforming. It’s the absolute goddamn rockstars that insist on ridiculous bullshit like pregnant men, women with penises, or describing chomos as ‘minor-attracted persons’ that gets my rejection and scorn. Those morbidly obese, chronically unemployable, mentally unstable neon hairs with way too many tattoos and piercings, who dress like a cross between a hobo and a circus clown, and whose neopronouns are a vaguely German-sounding string of random gibberish are doing more to hurt the gender-bender cause than anything Moms For Liberty could possibly do. Also, that 42% suicide rate isn’t helping matters on their end.

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