Transgender American Veterans Association

TAVA is back in action and is looking forward to expanding our community and providing more support for our trans+veterans. We look forward to our next chapter as an organization and are honored to have you be a part of it!

https://www.transveteran.org

Today let’s just take a moment and honor those that we have lost this past year. With everything going on it’s important that we take these moments and celebrate there lives. So please take 30 seconds out of this hectic world to take a moment of silence.

Thank you

Our thoughts and prayers are with the students, families and loved ones that were affected by the School shooting in Georgia.

As trans people, we are constantly visible. In our everyday lives, we exist in a world where we are ostracized by a society that demands to be educated about every aspect of our existence.

International Transgender Day of Visibility isn’t about trans people just being visible. It is about being human. It is a day for the world to acknowledge that we are here. No one NEEDS to understand our journies in order to treat us with decency. And we are moving further and further away from society being able to use ignorance as an excuse because WE ARE VISIBLE.

"As VA continues to deliver more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before, VA will strive to ensure that every Veteran gets the care and benefits they deserve."

While the 2024 Equity Action Plan may not be the specific win we are asking for, it is a win for Veterans. Healthcare is more than blanket rules and doing what benefits most. It is understanding the ways in which our unique experiences affect the care we need. We applaud the VA and Secretary Denis McDonough for the work that has been done and the work still in progress, because EVERY Veteran should receive the care they deserve.

VA announces 2024 Equity Action Plan, new actions to ensure that all Veterans receive the health care and benefits they earned - VA News VA announces health care and benefits 2024 Equity Action Plan

"Since before even Albert Cashier, an American soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, transgender service members and veterans have been a part of not only the fabric of our rich military history, but also our American History.

In recent years our identity has become a political bargaining tool that is beingas a battering ram to destroy gender-affirming care in the VA and D.O.D. healthcare systems..."

Read the complete statement at transveteran.org

Identity and Politics — Transgender American Veterans Association Since before even Albert Cashier, an American soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, transgender service members and veterans have been a part of not only the fabric of our rich military history, but also our American History.

It has been three years since Presiden Biden lifted the ban of transgender active duty service members. It has been about three years since the Biden Administration and the VA announced they would remove the ban on Gender Confirmation Surgeries at the VA. Enough is enough. It is time to hold the VA accountable for their unfulfilled promises.

Today, we have filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, asking them to make the VA decide on the 2016 Rule Change Petition. It is time for the VA to start working for ALL veterans.

Veterans sue VA for Gender-Confirmation Surgery — Transgender American Veterans Association Today, the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) seeking an order that the VA act on TAVA’s 2016 rulemaking petition for gender-confirmation surgery. Nearly eight years since TAVA submitted its rulemaking petit...

Today we took a stand. Enough of our brother and Sisters have served this country and not gotten the health support they need. Today with the help of Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic, we have ask the VA to make their decision on a petition that was sent over 7 years ago.

The official press release below:

TRANSGENDER AMERICAN VETERAN ASSOCIATION SERVES DEMAND ON VA: ALLOW GENDER-CONFIRMATION SURGERY OR BE SUED
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) has written the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) demanding that VA act on TAVA’s 2016 rulemaking petition for gender-confirmation surgery for transgender veterans. TAVA served the petition to the VA more than seven years ago request they provide gender-confirmation surgery, which is essential and often lifesaving medical care for so many of the over 163,000 transgender veterans. Despite repeatedly stating his commitment to fulfilling TAVA’s request, Secretary McDonough has not formally responded to the rulemaking petition. In its demand letter, TAVA informs VA that it will file suit in federal court unless VA issues a formal response within 30 days.

“On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we publicly honor and mourn those in our community killed by transphobic violence,” said Rebekka Eshler, President of TAVA. “We feel the pain of this senseless loss, and in their memory, fight against gender-based violence and discrimination. Transgender veterans have waited far too long for the medically necessary healthcare they require. It is high time that Secretary McDonough follows through on his public promises to the transgender veteran community. Statements are nothing without action.”

In the demand letter, TAVA cites evidence that gender-confirmation surgery drastically reduces the risk of suicidal ideation, depression, and psychological distress for many transgender people who live with gender dysphoria. These risks are especially acute for transgender veterans, as veterans already exhibit disproportionately high rates of su***de and depression.

“Gender-confirmation surgery has long been understood by major medical associations as part of critical and effective treatment for gender dysphoria,” said Sonora Taffa, a law student intern with the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic, which represents TAVA. “VA’s categorical exclusion of gender-confirmation surgery is inconsistent with its provision of other forms of gender-affirming care and treatment for conditions other than gender dysphoria.”

TAVA’s demand letter explains that VA’s nearly eight-year delay in responding to the rulemaking petition violates statutory requirements that VA decide matters presented to it within a reasonable time. If VA does not respond to TAVA’s rulemaking petition promptly, TAVA will bring federal litigation against the agency.

“VA’s failure to respond to TAVA’s rulemaking petition is a fundamental violation of its obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act,” said Alex Johnson, another law student intern representing TAVA. “This delay has consigned transgender veterans to a state of uncertainty that jeopardizes their health and safety. Every day that the VA fails to formally operationalize Secretary McDonough’s public statements is another day that transgender veterans must weigh whether they can pay out of pocket for these lifesaving procedures instead.”

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Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) is a nationwide, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that works to ensure its members receive full services and dignified treatment from VA and to provide a supportive community for all veterans who identify under the “Transgender Umbrella.”
The Veterans Legal Services Clinic, which represents the petitioner, is part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School.

As an organization that exclusively serves trans veterans, every week is Trans Week of Awareness. So our silence during this week was an opportunity to allow our allies to advocate on our behalf. Every year we lose people in our community to violence and su***de and the responsibility to create change falls on the trans community. But it is in the spaces where we are not present that the majority of the change happens. Speaking up when you see or hear something that is discriminatory or transphobic is how we change a society that invalidates and dehumanizes an entire community of people.

This Transgender Day of Remembrance, we look past the list of names and we honor the people, the lives, and the futures that were stripped from this world.

TAVA statement on FY2024 Budget.