Veterans

Trans people are overrepresented among military veterans in the United States. More specifically, trans individuals are two to three times more likely to have a history of military service compared with cis individuals in the general population. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a history of policies that banned trans people from the Armed Forces. In contrast, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) established policies for inclusion of trans veterans in 2011 and subsequently began providing medical and mental health care to trans veterans throughout VHA facilities. Research on trans veterans remains relatively limited, but scholars increasingly describe characteristics and experiences of this particular population. This entry summarizes available scholarly literature on trans veterans, including the prevalence of trans veterans in the United States, VHA ...