Transprogressive: My appeal to the VA resolved; my sex marker will change soon
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Transprogressive
BY AUTUMN SANDEEN
http://lgbtweekly.com/2012/10/25/transprogressive-my-appeal-to-the-va-resolved-my-sex-marker-will-change-soon/In a recent San Diego LGBT Weekly column, "What good is improved VA gender policy if it's inaccessible?" I wrote about how I was pretty much the only transgender military veteran in the United States who was unable to take advantage of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) new policy for changing sex markers.
In that column I spoke about how a new treatment policy for disabled transgender military veterans was released June 2011, and about how one of the policy's intent's was to make it easier for transgender people to change their VA sex marker. The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) did the heavy lift of getting the VA's healthcare policy changed, and I was the test veteran to see if one actually could change one's sex marker under the new rules.
In testing the policy we found that one couldn't change one's sex marker as easily as the new healthcare policy was supposed to make it. So October 2011, I filed an appeal with the VA challenging the denial of my request for a sex marker change.
[...]
As of Oct.15 – almost a year to the day after filing my appeal – I was sent a letter from the VA. My appeal was resolved in my favor. Per the letter, sometime within the next thirty calendar days the VA will change my sex marker from male to female.
