A group that advocates on behalf of transgender veterans has filed a second lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs after it denied a 2016 petition calling for health benefits to include gender-transition surgery, The Hill reported.
The Transgender American Veterans Association, which is being represented by the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic, alleges in a federal complaint filed on Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., that the VA has essentially prohibited transgender veterans who rely on the department for health care from accessing surgery since the department issued a directive in 2013 stating that the VA “does not provide sex reassignment surgery.”
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in 2021 during a Pride Month event that the department was planning to include surgery when it expands its health care benefits for transgender veterans. However, the advocacy group contends that the VA has failed to keep its promise, having previously filed a lawsuit calling on an appeals court to compel the VA to respond to its 2016 petition, which McDonough denied shortly after it was sent.
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