Group of States File Brief in Lawsuit to Force Veterans Affairs to Cover Transgender Procedures

As a far-left activist group tries to use legal action to force the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to cover transgender procedures, a group of states has filed a friend of the court brief in support of the lawsuit.

As reported by Just The News, the lawsuit was filed last month by the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA), demanding that the agency follow through on a petition that had been filed in 2016 which first made the demands that the agency’s benefits include gender-mutilation surgery and other forms of “transgender health care.”

Now, in addition to TAVA’s lawsuit, attorneys general from 18 different states, as well as Washington D.C., have filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit, claiming that the VA was failing in its mission by not providing such treatments.

“The mission of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is to fulfill President Abraham Lincoln’s simple promise: ‘to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors,'” the attorney generals complained in their filing. “Taken together, the regulation and implementing directive render President Lincoln’s promise an empty one for many transgender veterans.”

“Although the VA recognizes the existence of transgender veterans, the VA falls short of serving and caring for all veterans when it prevents transgender veterans from accessing medically necessary and potentially life-saving treatment,” the statement continued. “Transgender veterans with gender dysphoria are left without life-saving healthcare, and are vulnerable to physical suffering, depression, and suicidal ideation.”

While the VA has not issued a comment on the pending lawsuit, Secretary Denis McDonough had announced two years prior that the VA would start covering transgender procedures as part of its benefits. At the time, however, McDonough admitted that the process of implementing such new rules would take time.

The 18 states which signed onto the lawsuit are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.