Trans Universe

For the first time since the Transgender American Veterans Association existed, a mainstream print media has dedicated an extensive amount of space to present the stories of transgender veterans and the problems they face. In a two-part series, journalist Carol Ann Alaimo spent over three weeks of interviews, research and education to come up with this two-article, 3500 word essay on our veterans.

Alaimo, the military journalist for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star, told me that she got interested in transgender veterans when she discovered the TAVA web site and read the survey we did last year. From there, she found transgender veterans in Tucson and spoke with many of them.

I am absolutely impressed with all the work she put into the two articles. As Sunday came to a close, there were already over 150 comments on her first article. By the end of Monday, the second article had nearly 200 comments. Then we also found the articles appearing on Military.com, with equally number of comments.

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Some veterans seem to think that if we transitioned AFTER serving in the military that somehow gives the VA the right to deny us services. They brought up Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as a way to justify this. The UCMJ and DADT only apply to those people who currently serve in the military and have nothing to with veterans or the VA. Talk about grasping at straws to justify discrimination and hate.

First Article: “Transgender vets a hidden population,” February 22, 2009.

In this article, Alaimo focused on the people she interviewed, one of them being a friend or mine, Erin Russ. She pointed out all of the problems Erin has encountered, problems we all have faced at one time or another. Here is a quote from Erin that made a strong point.

“This is something I think nobody wants to talk about,” said Russ, 52. “Transgender veterans basically make other people rethink their preconceived ideas of what a veteran is. We don’t just push the envelope — we crumple it up and throw it away.”

Alaimo follows with:

Mocked by strangers and often shortchanged by the veteran’s health-care system, these ex-troops say they get little of the respect accorded to those they served alongside.

She also sites a study titled “Transsexuals in the Military: Flight Into Hypermasculinity,” written in 1988 by Dr. George R. Brown, then an Air Force captain and psychiatrist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.  She also sites the Boston VA policy as being one of the most comprehensive documents from a VA facility in regards to transgender veterans.

 

One of the most compelling stories was that of Mick Andoso, a trans man who served 20 years and became a decorated Master Sgt. in the Air Force.  In 1994, Master Sgt. Brenda Weichelt was named one of the service’s top airmen for her work at the military’s Defense Language Institute in California.  Since then, Mick Andoso has had nothing but scorn and disrespect by many VA personnel.  Transgender veterans see this as typical treatment in our VA system.

 

Second Article: “VA reviewing policy against transsexual surgery,” February 23, 2009.

The second article had some interesting information from Alaimo, some of which has already been disseminated to our veterans, such as the Boston VA policy.  She interviewed Dr. Jillian Shipherd who actually created the policy in Boston.

 

Here is some of what Alaimo found in her research:

 

Officials at VA headquarters, given 10 business days to answer, said they couldn’t determine how many transgender patients are in the VA system nationwide.

 

Officials at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System — Tucson’s veterans hospital — said 48 VA patients in Southern Arizona are transsexual or have been diagnosed at some point with “gender-identity disorder,” the medical term that covers such cases.

 

A national advocacy group (TAVA) estimates that about 300,000 active or retired military personnel are transgender, though experts say an accurate count is impossible because many live under the radar to escape social stigma. 

Alaimo then spoke with someone at the VA to ask them why the VA doesn’t follow the American Medical Association’s policy toward transsexual people.

 

“VA is in the process of rewriting its directive excluding gender-reassignment surgery and will be conducting a review of the evidence base on this issue,” VA spokesman Terry Jemison said. “The current policy may continue or may change, but our decision will be based on the available evidence, not on the AMA’s resolution.”

 

The American Medical Association said many surgeries that help transgender patients — such as removal of breasts, testicles or ovaries — are routinely covered for other patients for various medical reasons.

 

Denying such coverage to transgender people “represents discrimination based solely on a patient’s gender identity,” the doctors group said. 

What Jemison said hit us all like a rock.  The VA is actually reviewing the policy on gender reconstruction surgery?  This sounded like great news . . . until we realized that they have been reviewing the policy WITHOUT contacting any transgender person or organization.  Both TAVA and NCTE have not been made aware of this.

 

In order to find out who in the VA could be doing the review, I called the man whom Alaimo spoke with, Terry Jemison.  To find him, I had to call the main VA number in DC and they gave me his number.  I left him a voice message and the next day, Tuesday, 2/24/09, I got a call from him.  Jemison works in the Office of Public Affairs.

 

The first subject I brought up had to do with the statement he made to Alaimo when she pointed out to him that according to the TAVA survey of 2008, 10% of the transgender veterans who used the VA have at one time been turned away for being trans and 25 % have experienced disrespect by VA people.  Some of those stated that they had their medical records shown to people not involved in their case, a strict violation of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.  In the article, he stated:

 

Jemison, the national VA spokesman, said the VA “does not condone withholding delivery of routine medical care for transgender patients anywhere in our system.” 

At first, he said to me that those who have been turned away may not have been qualified for VA medical service.  I quickly pointed out the case of a 100% disabled trans man who got out on a Medical Discharge, went to the DC facility and was turned away, only to drive 60 miles north to the Baltimore VA and received treatment.  He couldn’t respond to that.  Then he gave me a toll-free number, 800-488-8244 for the Office of Patient Care Service, telling me that if anyone had a problem or were being disrespected, they needed to call that number.  As far as TAVA is concerned, the VA needs to address the issue overall rather than addressing it one person at a time.  It would make more sense to have a directive pertaining to our veterans.  But, our government never makes much sense.

 

Then I brought up the policy review and he said that the people doing the review would be in the same Office of Patient Care Services.  He stated that he would pass on my name and number to the people at that location and they will call me.  The Office of Public Affairs did not have the authority to change policy.

 

To see what I would get by dialing the toll-free number, I called to hear a series of options.  I could not determine what option our people had to use in order to file a complaint, but I could have missed it.

 

Not one to give up easily, I called Virginia Copland, the Secretary for the VA Secretary, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki.  She and I had spoken before on other issues, before Obama took office, so she gave me a couple of other phone numbers to try.  At one number the person worked in the VA Statistics Dept, which could not help me, but he gave me another number to try.  I then asked him if he would do a study on how many transgender people use the VA, but he didn’t seem interested.

 

I tried a number for the VA’s General Council and left my name and concerns with the receptionist there.  A few hours later, I received a call from Eric Raun, an attorney for the VA and we discussed the issues.  Raun had also spoken with Terry Jemison about this and stated that the people who would be revising the transgender veterans health policy work for the Veterans Health Administration and Jemison will have someone from there give me a call.  They happen to be the same people who can address the discrimination and disrespect problems facing transgender veterans.

 

As one can see, trying to narrow down the proper people who make decisions in the VA is an Lose Weight Exercise in patients and futility.  Even though I can call the Secretary for the VA Secretary, I hesitate to ask a favor of her to get the chance to meet with Gen. Shinseki or even present something to him.  TAVA wants to work with the proper people making the decisions.