New guidelines implemented at the Department of Veterans Affairs will allow health care providers to deny treatment to veterans who are unmarried or self-identified Democrats or affiliates of other political parties.
According to The Guardian, the change is due to President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” released on January 30.
The order is designed to enable discrimination against transgender people by undoing policies implemented by the Biden administration, which sought to expand civil rights.
Kenneth Kizer, who served as under secretary for health in the VA under President Bill Clinton, told The Guardian that the new guidelines would “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected.”
Current laws do not rule out discrimination against transgender people or political ideology, in contrast to clear prohibitions on discrimination by sex and race.
Trump has expressed repeated hostility toward transgender people, even recently barring them from serving in the military. He’s also repeatedly falsely accused the Democratic Party and its leaders of crimes, making it unlikely that his administration would pursue cases of discrimination involving veterans who identify with groups that aren’t protected by existing law.
After The Guardian published its story, VA Secretary Doug Collins jumped on X to declare it “fake news.”
“This story is not only false, it’s ridiculous. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law,” he wrote.
But the Trump administration has frequently said it will honor existing commitments or laws, only to go on and do whatever it wants.
The new guidelines are just the latest in a series of decisions that degrades the level of care offered to veterans who rely on the VA system.
The Trump administration has cut back on VA call centers, replacing human staff with automated systems. The change makes it more difficult for veterans to speak with staffers who can customize a care response based on their specific medical needs.
Collins has been pushing to eliminate positions at the VA in line with the staff reductions done by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump also cut a Biden-era mortgage assistance program that helped veterans in danger of losing their homes. At the same time, Trump’s ban on transgender military personnel demonstrates his hostility toward people who have voluntarily signed up to defend the country.
Meanwhile, Trump was more than happy to—unsuccessfully—stage a military parade on his birthday on Saturday in Washington, D.C., despite veterans’ concerns about using the military as a partisan propaganda weapon.
Chris Purdy, an Army National Guard veteran who served in the Iraq War, protested against Trump’s deployment of the military in Los Angeles during an event at the U.S. Capitol on June 13.
“I'm seeing a lot of attacks on the apolitical nature of the military, on the veteran community itself,” Purdy told Time magazine. “And then, to kind of wrap it all up in this parade, it feels gross.”
Campaign Action Oliver Willis June 16, 2025 at 10:30PM From Daily Kos
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