On April 17, the Anchorage VA facility’s Chief of Staff and Associate Chief of Staff of Behavioral Health ordered the end to a long-running transgender peer group. This group connected vulnerable veterans all across Southcentral Alaska — some in drastically isolated locations — to their specialty care doctor. The group hosted a community we otherwise lacked: a place to discuss our medical journey directly with a subject matter expert, and to connect with each other over shared medical experiences. I personally found a wealth of information and care in the group — care that could serve future veterans but will now end with nothing to take its place.
This is blatantly discriminatory against vulnerable veterans on the basis of gender and sex, especially in light of similar groups (such as smoking cessation, Move and others) being allowed to continue weekly with their medical professional leaders.
Veterans and transgender individuals are both at increased risk of suicide due to lack of access to care and community and this decision will further burden these populations. The chief of staff and associate chief of staff think this is an excuse to remove the group from our specialty care doctor, citing the service as behavioral health-oriented. This is false. The support we lack is medical and social, not behavioral.
Moreover, their proposed alternative is to open a single room at the VA facility for group veterans to meet without a VA care provider at all, a solution akin to putting us in the closet with the other skeletons. This would also prohibit the attendance of isolated and non-local veterans, who currently attend via telehealth.
If you are an impacted veteran, or are sympathetic to our cause, notify the Alaska VA via alaskaquery@va.gov and share/endorse this letter. If you are a veteran or service member at risk of suicide, call the Military Crisis Line at (800) 273-8255.
— Tierza Hayes
Anchorage
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