Dems Send Doug Collins Dear John
In the wake of a particularly heinous month for trans servicemembers and veterans, congressional Democrats sent Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins a strongly worded letter.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
On March 17, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) abruptly announced that they would be rescinding Directive 1341 (which provided guidance for treating military personnel experiencing gender dysphoria) and denying gender-affirming care (GAC) to new VA patients. The new VA directives, supposedly intended to comply with an Executive Order stating that the US government only recognizes two genders and that they are immutable (not legally binding, by the way), will deny GAC to any veteran who is not already receiving treatment for gender dysphoria through the VA, or servicemember who is receiving treatment for dysphoria through TRICARE and eligible for VA benefits upon discharge from service.
“I mean no disrespect to anyone,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins, disrespectfully, in a VA press release, “but VA should not be focused on helping Veterans attempt to change their sex. The vast majority of Veterans and Americans agree, and that is why this is the right decision. All eligible Veterans–including trans-identified Veterans–will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law. But if Veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.”
It’s difficult to imagine what widely accepted medical treatments Doug Collins might want to steal from veterans next, but for once, congressional Democrats have something to say about it. Thanks to reporting by Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation, we know that Last Friday, on March 28, 69 Democratic congress members drafted, signed and issued a letter to Collins.
“We write in strong opposition to your decision to rescind Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive 1341(4), ‘Providing Health Care for Transgender and Intersex Veterans’ and to phase out medically necessary care for transgender veterans,” the letter opens. “Transgender veterans, like all veterans, have served our nation with honor and deserve access to medically necessary care in a culturally competent and affirming setting ... Your decision to rescind [Directive 1341] was just the latest action by President Trump and VA to end support for transgender veterans. Since President Trump took office, VA facilities have stopped allowing transgender veterans to access single-sex facilities, including restrooms, consistent with their gender identity; VA employees have been told to remove transgender-affirming materials; and there have been reports of veteran health records being updated to remove patients' gender identity ... These actions intentionally create an environment that is unnecessarily hostile towards transgender veterans, which will undermine efforts to provide these veterans with the services and care they need.”
The letter’s signees ask that Collins reinstate Directive 1341, and answer questions about the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), such as how many veterans were treated for gender dysphoria, how much did the VHA spend on those treatments, and comparably how much they spent on treatments for erectile dysfunction (ED) in 2024.
If you aren’t aware, the Department of Defense and VA’s lavish expenditures on pills to treat ED have long been used as a “gotcha” comparison to the much smaller figure they likely spend on GAC for servicemembers and veterans; if the Pentagon and VA can cover the tab on soldiers’ half-mast flags, they can surely foot a much smaller bill to care for transgender troops.
The signees asked for Collins to answer their questions and reply to their demands by Monday, April 3. It’s unclear at this time if they meant Monday, March 31 or Thursday, April 3, or whether or not Collins has issued a reply to their letter or will in the future.
Whether or not Collins rolls back these changes at VA, the department is staring down the barrel of some hard times. Collins has announced a plan to fire 80,000 VA employees, or 16.59% of the department’s entire employee pool. During a visit to American Legion Post 141 on Monday, Collins defended this bizarre move, saying, “We were hiring interior designers. We’re hiring laborers. We were hiring publicists … We have a lot of employees in the VA that are not seeing patients. They’re not doing disability claims. They’re not doing that. They’re moving paperwork. And so we’re gonna see if someone would like to be reintroduced to a clinic and actually help patients on their daily basis.”
Why Collins believes that every single staff member at VA must be a medical professional is unclear. Perhaps, like the rest of President Trump’s picks for various offices and positions of prominence, he simply has no idea how to do his job.
What is clear is that Doug Collins is disingenuous at best. At that visit to American Legion Post 141, he said that in spite of upcoming changes at VA, “at the end of the day, it’s putting the veteran first and making sure you get the care that you’ve earned and the care and the benefits that you have.” This seems to run counter to his aggressively anti-trans veteran policies, denying trans veterans the care and benefits that they’ve earned, simply in pursuit of his Commander-in-Chief’s culture war.
Here’s hoping Collins gets back to those Dems by the next April 3 that is a Monday, which will be in 2028.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
