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Angela Brightfeather's avatar

As a founder and Past President of the Transgender American Veterans Association, TAVA, in 2003, please understand that:

1. In 2020 the Democrat Platform was revised to include that “all prescribed healthcare will be provided for Transgender Veterans, with no exclusions.”

2. TAVA has an active lawsuit against the VA, to provide and support Gender Corrective Surgery for all Transgender Veterans. This lawsuit was filed on the basis of a statement made by the Director of the VA three years ago. The parameters of the service, the costs involved and many details about its implementation, have already been reviewed by the VA. The justification for this service is that it dramatically decreases the number of military suicides and that GCS is the only prescribed and affective treatment that reduces or illuminates gender dysphoria.

3. Any attempt by Democrat legislators to reverse or eliminate this promise by the VA and Democrats to provide “all prescribed healthcare” to Transgender Veterans, departs from the Democrat Party Platform, implies that the lives of Transgender Veterans and their service are not equal to all l other Veterans and Active Duty people in the military, and that attempts to reduce all military connected suicide rates is not of concern to them.

4. Democrat legislators who ignore the lives of all Veterans is discriminatory, exclusionary and specifically is throwing Transgender people under the bus.

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TransFormAndFunction's avatar

Thank you for sharing this. Do you feel like the bill's complete misalignment with the Dem platform will prevent it from passing with the anti-trans riders, or do you think it's likely to pass regardless? I know I'm asking for speculation, but speculation from experts is kind of the best we have

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Angela Brightfeather's avatar

My feeling is that historically, based on every piece of legislation going back to the Mathew Shepard Hate Law, any mention of Transgender rights, has either been used as a bargaining chip or has been denied inclusion, to satisfy the the evangelical and conservative right. They are threatened by the admission that Transgender people have and are serving our country with distinction and honor, as d according to the law, deserve the same credibility, respect and dignity as cis people. They cannot let that much credit and equality be recognized by others, or admitted to by them. So they will do what they can to discriminate against us on every occasion.

They also hate admitting that GLBTQI+ people have defending our country in every war and dispute.

If the Democrat VA committee gives in on this, they are throwing Trans people under the bus. The Senate Democrat VA committee who voted with the Republicans on this are less than reputable allies.

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KingRayVet's avatar

They never were allies. They're Christian Nationalists who agree with that sick ideology. Those people could be Dem, Independent, or GOP. They don't fool me, and we're fucked if this goes way back and stops all our progress to date. UGH

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Shirley Gauthier she/her's avatar

So well said and informative.

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The Anti-Bigot's avatar

The Department of Veterans Affairs is distinct from the Department of Defense and is a separate cabinet-level department. This legislation will not impact veterans. As a vet who waited for years expecting the VA to follow through and approve gender-affirming surgeries, I support TAVA's Lawsuit.

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PinkYoshi's avatar

I absolutely hate that our only options are to vote for the continued slow walking of Project 2025 or fast tracking it. I feel absolutely sick and hopeless. For a few years I’ve just been hoping my trans teen would live past HS graduation, but at this point I don’t even know if they’ll survive long enough to get to graduate in 2029. 😭

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Kali's avatar

Well, if it passes I'm fucked I guess. And then people are so surprised to meet so many leftist veterans.

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Megan's avatar

This will impact me severely if passed in this form. Available to discuss if you have any questions, Erin.

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KingRayVet's avatar

Yep, me too.

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Kai's avatar

Between this and Biden's recent statement, it's sure starting to feel like the Democrat party has decided to join Republicans in throwing trans people under the bus in order to win elections.

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TransFormAndFunction's avatar

I don't even think throwing us under the bus helps the republican's win, I think they are extremists with a very specific world view that they are fighting for, and most people are apathetic about our outcome. The right wing isn't just opportunistic, they are zealous. Look no further than their anti-reproductive stance, which is NOT politically favorable, but they push it anyway because they desperately want THEIR version of the country, and won't give up their anti-choice / anti-trans attacks no matter how politically inconvenient.

They don't actually need democracy to pull this off. With a legislative branch that does not function and could almost certainly never pass a constitutional amendment or check SCOTUS, an unconstitutionally expanded executive branch, and a SCOTUS that is packed with zealots who feel no need to adhere to logic, precedent, or the constitution, they have everything they need without any specific mandate from the people.

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Pelham's avatar

Barry Goldwater (Mr Conservative) warned the nation and republicans about evangelicals back in 1981 . Here is a link to his warning .

https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/i609g6/til_barry_goldwater_warned_against_republicans/

Thank you for your comments they are well taken .

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Mad Girl Disease's avatar

Under Project 2025's Comstockian language and logic, information about transgender care (along with all other bodily autonomy rights) could be designated obscene or pornographic, while the state of being, declaring, or presenting oneself as transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming could be designated a sex crime warranting registration on sex offender lists.

With absolute immunity, the president could demand protected confidential info of those whose tax or passport records indicate changes in gender identity, and use the list however he wants.

We could be legislated out of existence, or directly declared non-entities by Royal Presidential Proclamation.

(Apologies for my bummer tone this morning.)

Related link at New Republic:

The Real Targets of Project 2025’s War on Porn by Melissa Gira Grant: https://newrepublic.com/article/183636/project-2025-war-porn-trans-drag

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Ryn's avatar

Manchin, figures.

It’s so tough, it feels like we are battling on so many fronts. Stop fascism but we also have to vote out those who would approve such bills. Sigh

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Erin Reed's avatar

Not just Manchin.

9 dems saw the provisions and still advanced it out of committtee.

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Brecky Morris's avatar

I’d like to see the names of these nine democrats and where they are from.

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Erin Reed's avatar

They're in the article :)

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Veronica (she/her)'s avatar

Thank you Erin for giving us the list of the Democratic Senators who let the bill out of committee.

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Byron Kimball's avatar

Between the WH and Sen Dems, what is /happening/??

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Celeste's avatar

Political calculus. Dems have always been willing to throw us under the bus if they think it would cost them votes. Only a handful were ever actually supportive beyond political games and soundbites. Republicans have raised such a stink for so long about it that the dems are just giving in like usual.

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Sadie C.'s avatar

We are both disproportionately persecuted and disproportionately undefended. It's becoming increasingly challenging to remain hopeful.

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Jade's avatar

So scary what is going on in this country these days....

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allie's avatar

This is going to sound like a shocking statement from a trans person but here me out.

I'm against the use of the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. On the one hand it helps many of us get the care we desperately need but it creates a stigma especially since it is considered psychological in nature. I take meds for depression and in the mind of many people since depression is a disorder of the mind I'm lumped together with everyone else suffering from the most notorious psychological disorders bordering on in some case insanity. A diagnosis of gender dysphoria does the same if not worse. It's provides the justification in many people's minds for discrimination and disqualification from jobs and much more.

What I'd like to see is world where a person can simply choose to change their gender without having to admit to having a disease or disorder in order to justify it. It should be a right that everyone should be born with to be able to choose their gender.

I would say the same for our reliance on the argument for homosexuality that reasons that someone is born that way. The notion sets us up for being thought of as disordered from birth. In both cases it leaves open that we need to be cured but we are allowed to be this way because there is no cure yet.

What if a "cure" becomes available. What if the cure were something akin to a lobotomy. Lobotomies were used extensively to "cure" a wide variety of people who didn't fit society's mold. What if we were deemed unfit for military service unless we willingly accepted a "cure" that essentially took away who we were and forced us into a mold.

I refuse to say that I have gender dysphoria. My reasons for being trans are mine and I shouldn't need anyone's approval or diagnosis to be who I am and to change what physical characteristics I can to more closely resemble the person I am.

Likewise I will never say that I was born gay but that I exercise my right to choose what gender/s I will love. We need to defend our right to self determination.

We are not sick, we are different and that's healthy !

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KingRayVet's avatar

You're not in the military or a veteran. It's a code that gives us our HRT, some post-op support, trans devices & therapy, which are the only things the VA pays for. Active duty trans people have had more healthcare to get them battle-ready. The stupid VA has to have a code for everything; it's full of red-tape that isn't going away.

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The Anti-Bigot's avatar

You appear to support the very measure that the conservatives are frightened of. Anyone can willy-nilly declare themselves trans for the day. Or two days a week, or maybe to go to the opposite-gender bathroom for kicks. It's the same kind of thing as ROGD (Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria for teens) that they tried to pin on us but couldn't because it's not real gender dysphoria. It's just a temporary association with transgenderism or, more specifically, transsexualism. Are you one of those who like to call transmedicalists truscum? The point is that an actual medical condition is excusable and can be understood, whereas gender fraud is not. And that's also their problem with Drag Queens. It's sinful, godless homosexuality, plus gender fraud in their eyes.

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allie's avatar

You misconstrue my meaning. Being trans should not require an excuse medical or otherwise. It should be accepted as a natural deviation in nature. Brain studies have proven that the brains of trans individuals are more similar to the gender that they identify most closely with. Put down the Bible which is a fictional text and pick up Darwin.

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The Anti-Bigot's avatar

I misconstrued nothing you said. Also, your last comment was as ridiculous as it was mistaken.

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allie's avatar

Your fears about trans people are completely unfounded and without any basis in fact. Trans women do not go into women's bathrooms looking to rape cis women. Men do not dress up as women in order to go into women's bathrooms and claim that they're trans so they have the opportunity to rape cis women. Rape is already a crime and it wouldn't matter if you were a trans man a trans woman a cis man or a cis woman rape is still illegal and punishable by jail time.

The reason that you didn't notice me using the stall next to you in the women's bathroom is because you couldn't tell by looking at me that I was a transwoman and I did not stalk or make any attempt to hassle you. Just do your business and get out of the bathroom and don't forget to wash your hands.

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allie's avatar

No excuses needed for merely being different. I refuse to stand on a step stool for merely being different different is not disordered.

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Sandra's avatar

What is happening here is that the Democrats are reading the prevailing winds and the election losses very likely to occur in November, and they are quickly turning on some of their perceived liabilities (i,e. trans people) in a (probably futile) effort to keep the ship from sinking, Very sad and scary, but unfortunately it’s just the beginning,

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KingRayVet's avatar

There have been Christian Nationalists (White Supremacists) hiding out in the progressive party. They were always there. This has more to do with that than it does which party they belong to. UUUUUUUGH!

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Pelham's avatar

Good point . We will never win elections by reacting . We win elections by taking the initiative !!!

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Ivy's avatar

Can't wait for all the evil fucking dinosaurs in government to just go away.

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Elizabeth Hunt's avatar

We’ve always been the unwanted stepchild, so this doesn’t surprise me in the least. We need to pressure what few friends we have in the Senate to kill this bill until those amendments are removed.

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Hann Henson's avatar

The past few days, I have had an uncontrollable eye twitch my doctor says is stress related. I've just completely lost any and all hope. It feels like a death march going into 2025. Even if we win the election (haha, good one), there's still every other election to worry about. And I'm in NC with Mark Robinson! It's becoming abundantly clear that the "center" democrats let the Overton window be moved continually in such a way that I believe we will be chopped off on the next big ratchet to the right. While they tell us that us leftists need to just shut up and continue voting blue no matter who, but continue to capitulate to the right and ignore us from within their own party. It just kills me.

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KingRayVet's avatar

We have no way of knowing what's really going on in a politician's head. They could be Dem, GOP, or Independent thinking like those Christian Nationalists. How would we know without boots on the ground asking these kinds of questions in every State during their elections? I got a crazy bump on my nose because of all this, and I don't get zits like that.

These are horrible times indeed.

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Allie M's avatar

Every Dem on the committee voted opposed to the individual riders (17,18) - there's some nuance missing in this post about how the same Dem senators (except Warren and Reed) ended up voting in favor of the overall Bill.

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Erin Reed's avatar

I thought I was pretty clear in both of those fronts and even directly presented the vote tallies.

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Allie M's avatar

I'm also unclear on how this committee is considered a Democratic - controlled Senate committee when there's equal number Dems and GOP plus Manchin who's an Independent, am I missing something? In any case, I don't believe your post explains why/how ALL Dems voted opposed to 17,18 then several voted in favor of the overall bill. My guess is a negotiation happened, concessions were made - that is the nuance that's missing in my opinion.

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Erin Reed's avatar

The chair of the committee is a Democrat, and Manchin caucuses with Dems.

Many Dems probably could not stomach voting directly for the anti-trans riders but were perfectly fine voting the full bill through with the riders in it. You’ll have to ask them why, but it is absolutely true that most Democrats were perfectly fine voting in the NDAA with project 2025 language this year, whereas last year Dems drew a red line on this issue and refused any bill with poison pill anti-lgbtq language.

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Allie M's avatar

ok, I just contacted Senator Shaheen:

Dear Senator Shaheen, I'm concerned about your vote "in favor" of reporting to the Senate the recent NDAA markup which includes provisions to eliminate funding for transgender healthcare for military members as well as their families. I'm confused because you voted as "opposed" on Motions 17 and 18 but then voted "in favor" on the final Motion 28. Can you please provide an explanation? All service members and their families deserve the healthcare they need, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity. Thank you.

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