About two dozen people attended the Veterans Visibility Rally on Friday, March 28, 2025, at McPherson Square across from the Veterans Administration headquarters in Washington. The rally gathered to support veterans who are women, people of color, LGBTQ, religious minorities, immigrants, and disabled. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — As LGBTQ pride flags and U.S. flags waved behind Lindsay Church, the Navy veteran urged a small crowd of fellow veterans and other activists gathered outside the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in the nation’s capital Friday to raise their voices and lodge complaints against the agency’s elimination of transgender care.
Church, the executive director of Minority Veterans of America, accused the VA and Doug Collins, its new secretary, of denying veterans the health care that they earned from military service. She was joined by representatives from more than a half-dozen veterans groups protesting the phase out of transgender-related medical care at VA hospitals and clinics.
“I believe my benefits are under scrutiny and under attack,” said Church, who also condemned recent policies of President Donald Trump’s administration to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that promoted individuals historically underrepresented in government programs, including at the VA.
Church and other organizers at the rally Friday in McPherson Square described the VA as the nation’s largest health care provider for transgender veterans. They spoke out against the end to Directive 1341, a VA regulation that protected gender-affirming health care for transgender veterans.
Lindsay Church, center, wraps up a speech on Friday, March 28, 2025, at McPherson Square during the Veterans Visibility Rally across from the Veterans Administration headquarters in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Veterans seeking hormone therapy, prosthetics and other transgender-related treatments will now have to do so “on their own dime,” Collins said when he announced a decision on March 17 to end transgender-related medical treatments at VA health facilities.
Representatives from Transgender American Veterans, the Union Veterans Council of the AFL-CIO, the Black Veterans Project and other veterans groups attended the downtown rally, which ended with a loud protest march around the downtown offices of VA headquarters.
“I mean no disrespect to anyone, but VA should not be focused on helping veterans attempt to change their sex. The vast majority of veterans and Americans agree, and that is why this is the right decision,” Collins has said.
Any savings from ending the medical treatments will be redirected to defray the costs of care for veterans with catastrophic injuries that include amputations and paralysis, he said.
But Alleria Stanley, a 51-year-old retired Army staff sergeant, said by shifting spending from transgender veterans to other veterans, the VA effectively “pits one group of veterans against another” over limited medical resources and other services.
“This administration is trying to say that some veterans are more deserving than others,” Stanley said. “As a transgender veteran, I am not an ideology. I am a veteran. Everyone should be treated equally, feel welcomed and see the VA as a safe space.”
Veteran Alleria Stanley attends the Veterans Visibility Rally on Friday, March 28, 2025, at McPherson Square across from the Veterans Administration headquarters in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Rally-goers, which numbered about 30 people, lashed out against Trump’s executive orders to block transgender people from serving in the military and to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“These actions are nothing short of an attempt to erase us,” said Navy veteran Chris Hooper — co-founder of SPARTA, a transgender military advocacy group.
Hooper informed the crowd that Trump’s order banning transgender people from military service was temporarily blocked Thursday night in federal court. U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle found no evidence to support keeping transgender troops out of military service after they’ve been serving openly for the past four years, The Associated Press reported.
“People should not be kicked out of the military for being transgender,” Hooper said.
He and several other speakers implored the attendees to make their opposition heard.
The strength of America’s all-volunteer military force depends on the military accepting qualifying people no matter their race, gender or sexual identity, said Luke Schleusener, chief executive officer of Out in National Security, a group that supports national security professionals who are LGBTQ.
“These actions represent a direct attack on those who currently serve, those who have served in the past, and the fundamental idea that the all-volunteer force is open to all Americans,” said Schleusener, a former White House speech writer and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The transgender ban, in particular, has marginalized an entire group of people,” he said.
“But it’s never just about us,” Church said.
“I am a Navy veteran who happens to be transgender,” Church said. “Whether veterans are Black, brown, indigenous, disabled or transgender, they should get the benefits and services they were promised and they earned.”
About two dozen supporters march around the Veterans Administration headquarters on Friday, March 28, 2025, during the Veterans Visibility Rally in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
