The Federal Government just told me that I need to choose between my livelihood and my identity.
On Friday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memo that will devastate the lives of transgender federal workers and their families. Beginning in 2026, all federal employee health plans will be barred from covering gender-affirming care—hormone therapy, surgeries, the full spectrum of medically necessary treatment that doctors and every major medical association agree saves lives. In its place, for the first time in history, a memo that mandates coverage of “faith-based counseling”—a euphemism for conversion therapy.
In one stroke, the federal government told more than 10 million employees and their families, including me, that our health, our dignity, and our very existence are expendable.
I am a transgender woman. I am a veteran. I am a military spouse. And I am a federal employee working in the Military Health System. My entire adult life has been bound up in serving this country and the people who wear its uniform. And yet, the very government I continue to serve even after service has now made me choose between my livelihood and my identity.
I know what it means to sacrifice. I deployed to combat zones as a soldier. I built my family around the rhythm of my husband’s Air Force career—the missed anniversaries, the sleepless nights, the quiet fears that accompany every deployment, and the many trials of being a military family. Now, as a federal civilian, I dedicate myself to ensuring military families get the care they need. But this policy says my family doesn’t deserve the same. That while I help deliver care to others, I must be denied it myself. This isn’t just bureaucratic cruelty—it’s personal betrayal.
The memo’s language is very blunt: “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits” will no longer be covered. That means necessary hormones. That means necessary surgery. That means care people rely on to live authentically and healthily.
What will be covered instead? “Faith-based counseling” for gender dysphoria—conversion therapy by another name. We know the truth about these practices ....
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