Two Spirits Murdered Today But In another time Honored

Durango Herald A boy remembered :"Ten years ago, 16-year-old Cortez resident Fred Martinez was murdered, bashed repeatedly with a heavy rock held by a man he met just that night. In what came to be central aspects of his death, Martinez was Navajo and described himself as “two-spirited,” a distinctly Native American term describing those who engender a male spirit and a female spirit."

"His death became another addition to a harrowing stream of hate crimes that have shocked the public with their brutality while also sparking unique conversations about two-spirited people and acts of intolerance against them."

Least we forget.

VA OKs Therapy and Hormones But not SRS

Why?

3. POLICY: It is VHA policy that medically necessary care is provided to enrolled or otherwise eligible intersex and transgender Veterans, including hormonal therapy, mental health care, preoperative evaluation, and medically necessary post-operative and long-term care following sex reassignment surgery. Sex reassignment surgery cannot be performed or funded by VHA or VA.

According to the June 9 2011 VHA DIRECTIVE 2011-024 "PROVIDING HEALTH CARE FOR TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX VETERANS" the VA is directed to diagnose, offer therapy and hormones but the VA is specifically ordered not to perform or pay for surgery.

That's like doing everything for a terminal cancer patient except remove the cancer!

Why not fix the plumbing?

According to the Transgender American Veterans Association "The VA is prohibited from accomplishing what is termed Gender Alteration, Gender Reorientation, or Genital Identity Revision. The last term effectively rules out even intersex corrective surgery."

[CITE: 38CFR17.38] Code of Federal Regulations Title 38, Chapter 17, Section 38.c)

How do we change that regulation?