Top House Veterans Affairs leader pledges action after Trump ends LGBTQ+ care network for those who served

Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, is accusing the Trump administration of deliberately undermining veterans’ health care after the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly moved to dismantle the national network that coordinated care for LGBTQ+ veterans.

The gay California congressman, who also chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, sharply criticized the administration after The Advocate obtained an internal Veterans Health Administration email showing officials are ending the infrastructure that has supported the LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator program for more than a decade.

The July 23 email, signed by Mark A. Koeniger, the Veterans Health Administration’s acting assistant under secretary for health for patient care services, directs that LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinators be redesignated as general care coordinators. It also orders an end to the program’s monthly calls, regional leadership meetings, orientation sessions and national communications while archiving Microsoft Teams channels and SharePoint resources developed specifically for the program.

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For Takano, the move represents more than an administrative reorganization.

“Shuttering the LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator program is just the latest cruel attack by the Trump administration on our nation’s veterans,” Takano said in a statement to The Advocate.

He argued the decision fits a broader pattern of policies that, in his view, have weakened the Department of Veterans Affairs and narrowed access to care.

“Everything this administration has done since Trump took power, from pushing privatization of VA to enacting a near-total ban on abortion care, is directly harming the veterans we’re supposed to serve,” Takano said. “As the lead Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I will do everything I can to defend every veteran’s access to culturally competent care, including LGBTQ+ veterans.”

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The newly obtained email marks the latest step in a rollback first revealed by The Advocate last month, when an internal VA memorandum showed the department had ordered the elimination of gender identity-based initiatives and directed facilities nationwide to remove the LGBTQ+ designation from the Veteran Care Coordinator program.

At the time, employees were told their work would largely continue despite the name change.

But the new email lays out a far more sweeping dismantling.

“The following changes will take place over the next week,” Koeniger wrote before listing the elimination of specialized meetings, communications, procedures and collaborative forums that had connected LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinators across the country. Employees were also instructed to preserve any documents they wished to keep before LGBTQ+-specific SharePoint resources were removed.

A VA health care provider involved with the program, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and feared retaliation, said the latest directive has left coordinators feeling “shock, anger, and betrayal.”

“Since the June 12 memo, leadership’s messaging has been that nothing is changing — no changes to our job scope or functions, just a title change,” the provider told The Advocate. “I and others communicated this to our veterans, and now we have to go back and tell them that’s not true.”

Related: Trump ends care network for LGBTQ+ veterans, internal email shows. Providers condemn 'cruel erasure'

The provider described the reversal as “moral injury on top of moral injury.”

While the July 23 email does not say LGBTQ+ veterans will lose access to VA health care, the provider said dismantling the national coordinator network effectively strips away the specialized support system that helped veterans navigate care and connected providers with one another.

“This is a cruel erasure of LGBTQ services,” the provider said. “It was carried out in a way that lets the VA avoid explicitly saying they don’t provide LGBTQ veteran care — but that’s the reality of it.”

The provider also questioned why the LGBTQ+ program was dismantled while other specialty programs remain intact, including those serving women veterans, caregivers and survivors of intimate partner violence.

The decision comes as the Trump administration has systematically eliminated LGBTQ+-specific programs and references across the federal government, arguing that agencies should no longer administer initiatives based on gender identity.

The Advocate contacted Pete Kasperowicz, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, on Wednesday, asking why employees were reportedly assured only their titles would change, how LGBTQ+ veterans will receive specialized assistance after the network is dismantled, and why the LGBTQ+ coordinator program was eliminated while comparable specialty programs remain in place. The department had not responded.