Hello, Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez is back in your inbox this Thursday with another scoop. defenderChristopher Wiggins.
Outside the Washington, DC office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, just below the names listed, there is a plaque with these words: “To take care of him, his widow, and his orphans, who would have endured the battle.”
the word President Abraham Lincoln said on March 4, 1865This was just 41 days before his assassination. According to the VA websitethese words live on there too (unless they magically disappear), “This singular act codified a social contract between the nation and veterans that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will always assist veterans and their families to heal and recover from illnesses, injuries, or scars sustained in their service to the United States and to successfully reintegrate into civilian life.”
But if you ask LGBTQ+ service members, or obviously the current government, if that “social contract” applies to all veterans, you’ll get some interesting answers.
As Wiggins reports, the Trump administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs began dismantling the national infrastructure supporting the LGBTQ+ Veterans Care Coordinator program, ending professional meetings and communications, archiving online resources, and converting employees to general care coordinators, according to internal emails obtained by The Advocate.
The changes have left coordinators across the country feeling “shocked, angry and betrayed,” according to an anonymous VA health care provider involved with the program. “This is the veterans version of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say I’m Gay’ law, which is blatantly homophobic and an attack on LGBTQ veterans.” They had much more to share with Wiggins.
All of this comes after Wiggins also reported that a federal judge had rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to exclude most transgender service members from a lawsuit led by former Air Force Master Sergeant Major Logan Ireland over military retirements that the Air Force approved and then abruptly rescinded. There is also the ongoing military transgender ban case.
May I offer these government officials an on-site visit to the Veterans Affairs plaque? At least they can visit VA site Just to make sure I’m reading those words correctly.
Until next time,
edgar
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Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
