Veterans earned their benefits. That's not a political statement — it's a promise this country made. So when the VA quietly dismantles a program that has helped LGBTQ+ veterans navigate their healthcare for over a decade, that promise gets broken for real people in our district who served this country.
On July 22, 2026, an internal VHA email instructed LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinators that their titles were being eliminated and their roles folded into a vague "support for all veterans" function. That sounds neutral, but it isn't. LGBTQ+ veterans face specific health challenges — higher rates of mental health crisis, barriers to care, and a long history of being turned away by the very institution that was supposed to serve them. These coordinators exist because that history is real, and because targeted care saves lives. Renaming the problem doesn't make it go away. It just makes it harder for vulnerable veterans to find help.
This isn't about politics. It's about whether we keep our word to the people who kept theirs. I'm asking you to publicly call on VA leadership to reverse this decision and restore the LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator program — and to use your oversight role on veterans' affairs to demand answers about what happened and what veterans are supposed to do now.
Don't let the people who served us fall through a gap someone created with a rename.
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