Policy Brief: Transgender Veterans
http://transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/policy-brief-transgender-veterans-policy/Transgender veterans who rely on veteran services can be among our most vulnerable community members. NCTE's federal policy agenda has specific areas of advocacy for transgender veterans: access to healthcare through the Veterans Administration and ability to update records and documentation of military service.
From the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which NCTE conducted in partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, we learned that transgender people seem to be disproportionately represented among the ranks of American veterans. Twenty percent of our sample indicated that they had served—almost twice the level of service among the general American adult population. And 20 percent of the transgender veterans in the sample used the VA system as their primary healthcare provider. In terms of discharge papers, only 35 percent of the veterans in our sample have been able to acquire amended discharge papers (DD-215).
