At the Veterans Administration offices in Muldoon, a set of posters on the wall that feature gay pride flag and transgender flag colors on dog tags has caught the attention of several people who have posted the images on social media.
Among the people photographed holding what appears to a gay pride emblem is State Rep. Andrew Gray, who worked at the VA as a physician’s assistant and is now an elected official.
The prominent art work appears to be flouting the orders of President Donald Trump to end all diversity-equity-inclusion programs that feature “identity” over competency in the military and across government.
Last week, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee advanced the nomination of Doug Collins to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs. But for now, the leadership of the VA is still under the Biden Administration-appointed management, which pushed LGBTQT+ ideology into every department in government.
At least 8,000 transgender individuals currently serve on active duty in the U.S. military, according to the National Institutes of Health in a study from 2019. Other sources say the number is now as much as 15,000. These are individuals that typically cannot safely deploy to a war zone because of their dependence on medications and because many of them have medical complications due to their surgeries and hormone treatments.
According to the NIH, transgender people in the military have mental health risks.
“To our knowledge, only two studies7,8 have been conducted that specifically examined transgender active duty service members. Given the potential vulnerabilities of both active duty service members9–12 and transgender individuals13–18 to mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, stress, substance use, and eating disorders, the risks facing transgender service members may be multi-fold,” the study says.
