It took a lot of Transgender American Veterans (TAVA) meetings with Congress and VA headquarters staff, but national policy is finally out and should make life easier for our preop, nonop, and postop vets. Mara Keisling of NCTE opened some doors for Monica Helms (TAVA president) and Angela Brightfeather (TAVA VP) along the way, and it is a big win for all of us.
http://www.va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pub_ID=2416 (http://www.va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pub_ID=2416) VA Directive 2011-024 of 9 June 2011, which will be made part of the VA Manual at it's next revision.
An NCTE article about the new policy can be found at http://transequality.org/ (http://transequality.org/) .
Robyn
CDR, USN(Ret)
Thank you, Robyn. That's awesome.