🩺 The VA resistance helping trans veterans

Hi there,

🚨 The Trump administration’s cancellation of National Institutes of Health grants for research projects on diverse populations amounts to racial discrimination and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, a federal judge ruled Monday.

🩺 In whispered hallway conversations and encrypted texts, and with rainbow pins discreetly clipped to lanyards, an underground resistance is taking shape within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. After the Trump administration stopped providing gender-affirming care for transgender veterans in March, some physicians within the VA system around the country are risking their careers — and safety — to defy the rollback quietly, chart by chart, patient by patient.

The underground resistance to the department's anti-trans policies was described to The Advocate in interviews with three different VA doctors and one transgender patient, who all spokeon the condition of anonymity. The doctors fear retaliation from supervisors and the Trump administration; the trans patient fears harassment. Read the story here.

🌈 On the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality, join The Advocate editors who covered it as they share stories of their professional and personal experiences. Catch the discussion via livestream on June 20, 11 a.m. Eastern.

Onward and upward,

Alex Cooper

Editor-in-Chief, The Advocate

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