VA Halts Transgender Surgery Support

After more than a decade, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently discontinued completing forms and letters of support to gender dysphoric veterans to assist their seeking outside assistance with transgender surgeries. LGBTQ Nation stated that “[t]he move comes as the number of trans veterans rises dramatically, considering many trans service members are being forced out of the armed forces by the current administration.” If there is such an extraordinary rise in trans veterans, it would mirror the statistically impossible increase in gender dysphoria diagnoses more reflective of the social contagion seen amongst adolescents and young adults, such as in the 2018 PLos One study by Lisa Littman, which found that in 36.8% of friendship groups studied, "one, multiple, or even all of the friends have become gender dysphoric and transgender-identified during the same timeframe."

This policy change predictably triggered swift condemnation from the now robust industry that has profited handsomely off the vulnerable, with a sycophantic gay media, long beholden to the militant trans lobby, fervently taking up the charge. LGBTQ Nation stated that the “[t]he cost of this policy will be measured in human lives.” The Modern Military Association of America, in a statement to The Advocate, said in part, “By abruptly prohibiting VA physicians from completing this paperwork, the VA is creating new barriers to essential, often life-saving care.”

This latest scaremongering with veterans reflects a larger societal push and closely mirrors the militant activist playbook weaponized against parents when faced with a gender dysphoric child. “Would you rather have a dead son or a living transgender daughter?” the mantra goes. Beyond the Transhausen-by-Proxy mothers all too happy to trans their offspring for social credits, thousands of children have already undergone irreversible gender transition surgeries over the past several years. The Medical watchdog group Do No Harm reported that, based on insurance claims data, at least 5,747 children underwent such surgeries between 2019 and 2023 alone. This zeal to promote the Orwellian phrase “gender affirming care” onto minor children, with blue states rushing to codify the practice within their newly created sanctuaries, is disturbing.

The reality these militant activists and their media handmaidens refuse to acknowledge is that, extremely rare intersex conditions aside, there are only two biological sexes, and they are unalterable. Put more bluntly, there are no hormone therapies or surgeries that can make a man a woman, or vice versa. Everything in service to that unattainable goal is simply playing pretend.

At its core, promoting these treatments is a cruelty towards the patient, and the difference between being nice or kind. The nice thing to do, which aligns to the perverse incentive of the medical community that has enriched itself off these procedures, is to immediately validate the dysphoria as real and commence the life-long medications and surgeries. The growing list of de-transitioners (up to 9% according to the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey) only reinforces the irresponsibility with which a good number of these transitions have been initiated.

The kind thing would be to recognize the dysphoria for what it is, a mental condition requiring both compassion and therapy. Too many clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, steeped in progressivism, often reject this by ardently prioritizing validation over treatment.

This notion that the Department of Veterans Affairs should help at risk individuals with a mental illness to trans themselves is gross medical malpractice. The recent policy shift is a welcome correction toward prioritizing veterans’ mental health over ideological and financially driven agendas. Truly helping veterans is done by focusing on care that heals, therapy, support and addressing root causes like PTSD. Transing them is not the solution.