Guest Column by Monica Helms: We Won One!
by: Laurel Ramseyer
Fri Jun 10, 2011 at 17:17:51 PM EDT

http://pamshouseblend.com/diary/19427/guest-column-by-monica-helms-we-won-one

The following is a guest post by the executive director of the Transgender American Veterans Association.

By Monica F. Helms

On June 10, 2011, the day that many of us had been waiting for finally arrived. The Veterans Health Administration, a division of the Veterans Affairs Department released the much anticipated directive toward transgender and intersex veterans. It's called, "Providing Health Care for Transgender and Intersex Veterans," VHA Directive 2011-024. A .pdf file, entitled Providing Health Care For Transgender And Intersex Veterans, can be found on the VA web site.

For Angela Brightfeather and myself, this has been a decade long journey, when we first discovered the inconsistency of treatment in VA facilities for our transgender and transsexual veterans. We formed a committee in the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, but quickly found out that a committee was not the right way to go.