WOKE Programs Scrapped — Veterans First

Department of Veterans Affairs building exterior sign

A sweeping new Veterans Affairs directive is scrapping woke DEI and “gender ideology” programs and redirecting millions back to core veteran care.

Story Snapshot

VA has formally ended department-wide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices and spending in response to President Trump’s executive orders.^[2]
A June 12 memo orders Veterans Health Administration sites to eliminate “gender-ideology based” initiatives and strip LGBTQ+ labels from coordinator roles while stating all veterans will still be served.^[3]
VA is also phasing out gender dysphoria treatments and tying any savings to care for severely injured veterans like amputees and paralyzed heroes.^[3]
Critics in left-leaning media frame these moves as attacks on LGBTQ+ veterans, while VA describes them as restoring mission focus and complying with federal law.^[3]

Trump’s Orders Push VA Back To Core Mission

President Trump’s executive order ending radical and wasteful government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs told every federal agency to shut down DEI and related offices and positions within sixty days.^[5] The Department of Veterans Affairs responded by announcing it had completed “initial implementation” of this order and ended DEI across the department. VA leaders say they are proud to abandon what they call divisive DEI policies and refocus on serving veterans, not social engineering.^[2]^[7]

According to the department, nearly 60 employees who worked only on DEI activities were placed on paid administrative leave, with combined annual pay above $8 million.^[2] VA also identified DEI-related training and consulting contracts worth over $6.1 million that it is canceling. Officials say these dollars will now be redirected to support veterans, families, caregivers and survivors through health care and other core services instead of ideology-driven programming.^[2]^[6]

Inside The June 12 Memo On “Gender Ideology” And DEI

An internal June 12 memorandum, obtained by The Advocate, shows how the Veterans Health Administration is carrying out the president’s orders inside the health system.^[3] Signed by Under Secretary for Health John J. Bartrum, the memo directs Veterans Health Administration facilities to comply with Trump executive orders that target DEI programs and federal recognition of transgender identity.^[3] It states plainly that Veterans Health Administration “must eliminate all DEI/DEIA programs, gender-identity based and gender-ideology based initiatives.”^[3]

The memo orders facilities to scrub websites, communications, policies, training materials, SharePoint pages, meetings and events so that no federal resources promote what the administration calls “gender ideology” or “gender identity.”^[3] It also instructs that LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinators be renamed simply as Care Coordinators, removing identity labels from titles while leaving the basic navigation function in place.^[3] The document gives regional networks and medical centers just 14 days to certify they are in full compliance, underscoring that this is an enforceable operational directive, not a suggestion.^[3]

Gender Dysphoria Treatments Phased Out, Savings Redirected

In a separate but related action, VA publicly announced that it will phase out medical treatments for gender dysphoria in response to President Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order.^[3] The order declares that the policy of the United States is to recognize only two sexes, male and female, which are not changeable.^[3] VA states it is adjusting its policies to fully comply with this mandate while continuing to provide other health services to all eligible veterans.^[3]^[5]

The department says it will no longer start cross-sex hormone therapy for veterans diagnosed with gender dysphoria unless they were already receiving it through VA or the military at separation, and VA will not provide any other medical or surgical therapy for gender dysphoria in any case.^[3]^[5] Officials emphasize that veterans with a gender dysphoria diagnosis will still receive preventive and mental health care, and that savings from ending these treatments will be redirected to help severely injured veterans, including amputees and paralyzed patients, regain independence.^[3]^[5]

How Critics Spin The Changes And What We Actually Know

Left-leaning outlets such as The Advocate describe these moves as the Trump administration “abandoning” LGBTQ+ veterans and eliminating their health care programs.^[3] Advocacy groups argue that rescinding Veterans Health Administration Directive 1341, which once guided care for transgender and intersex veterans, strips away a framework they say helped ensure respectful treatment.^[4] They warn, without yet having hard outcome data, that some veterans could face more confusion or delays in navigating the system after these changes.^[1]

The existing public record, however, shows several things clearly. First, all veterans, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, remain eligible for VA care, and programs explicitly authorized by Congress are stated to be untouched by the memo.^[3] Second, the administration has not produced detailed cost-benefit studies for these decisions in the released documents, so both supporters and critics are working from principle and values more than hard numbers.^[3]^[4] Finally, by ending DEI offices and rebranding identity-based roles, VA is signaling that its focus is returning to individual needs, medical necessity and the core mission of serving every veteran as an American, not sorting them into ideological groups.^[2]^[7]