President Trump made restricting the rights of trans+ people[1] one of the highest priorities of his second term. On the first day of his new administration, the president banned federal funding from being used to “promote gender ideology,” which the White House defines as “replac[ing] the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity.”[2]
In compliance with that order, [3] the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) soon announced that it would no longer provide hormone replacement therapy (HRT), mental health services, and other non-surgical gender-affirming care options that had been available to veterans through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) since 2011.[4] Trans veterans already receiving gender affirming care at the time of the order will still have access.
In a move that attempts to pit one group of veterans against another, the VA also announced that these funds would be redirected to “paralyzed veterans and amputees.” Sacrificing one type of necessary care to pay for another reflects the reality that federal tax cuts and budget decisions have made VA funding into a zero-sum game, leaving some veterans behind to fend for themselves.
The fact that HRT accounts for 0.001% of the VA’s total budget — just $500,000 annually[5] — makes the VA’s divisive intent very clear: The move is not about a half-million dollars in “savings.” It’s about enforcing the administration’s ideology over the medical opinions of doctors and their patients to determine appropriate treatment and villainizing one group of military veterans instead of addressing the real problem of broadly underfunded veteran services funding and support.
Separate attacks converge on Ohio’s trans+ veterans
On the federal level, the administration is in the process of gutting programs that many veterans depend on, many of which are crucial for trans+ people too.
H.R. 1, the administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” cuts funding for necessary programs and adds barriers to accessing them. It eliminates a work requirement exemption for veterans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps).
H.R. 1 will impact access for food assistance for trans+ veterans (and many others). Thirty percent of trans+ respondents to a national survey indicated they, their partner, or their child had received benefits from SNAP in the past 12 months.[6] In Ohio, 7.4% of veterans live in households that receive SNAP benefits.[7] Veterans are among the groups of people who were previously exempt from SNAP work-reporting requirements, which, if unfulfilled, limit a recipient to only three months of benefits in a 3-year timespan.[8] The federal budget eliminates the veteran exemption from the SNAP work requirement, meaning that veterans will now have to prove they are working, volunteering, training, or looking for work at least 80 hours per month to keep year-round SNAP benefits. Overall, the federal budget’s changes to SNAP are expected to cause 717,000 Ohio households to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits.[9]
One in 10 of Ohio’s 605,000 veterans were enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP as of 2021-23.[10] Medicaid is crucial to filling health coverage gaps for many veterans, especially those who have low income or are unable to prove service-connected disabilities for VA care. Nearly half of veterans covered by Medicaid report having a disability.[11]
H.R. 1 will add more red tape for everyone enrolled in Medicaid via Medicaid expansion,[12] including veterans, in two meaningful ways: It imposes work-reporting requirements and doubles the number of times enrollees must prove their eligibility per year.[13] Both will result in those veterans, trans+ people, and other Ohioans who are enrolled in Medicaid via Medicaid expansion to lose coverage.[14] For trans+ veterans who are already facing health care bans from the VA, this is another hoop to jump through before they can receive the care they need.
Veterans are among those required to report their work status as proof of Medicaid expansion eligibility, including disabled veterans, except those “with a disability rated as total under section 1155 of title 38, United States Code.”[15]
Trans+ people in general have higher rates of disability than their cisgender[16] counterparts,[17] so these changes are likely to have an even more devastating impact on trans+ veterans.
Congress is working to pass even more threats to trans+ veterans enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare. The HHS appropriations bill[18]—the avenue through which discretionary funding is allocated—would prohibit any federal dollars from being used for trans+ health care, including mental health services. This would ban gender-affirming care for Medicaid and Medicare enrollees, and could be used to threaten the funding of any hospital that serves trans+ people.[19]
Attacks on trans+ Ohioans are attacks on trans+ veterans
Trans+ people are under attack: Between 2022 and 2023, the number of bills introduced across the U.S. targeting gender-affirming care[20] more than quadrupled, from 40 to 188.[21]
Ohio’s state budget, H.B. 96,[22] includes a directive that no funds may be appropriated for mental health services for trans+ people.[23] Once in effect, the policy will prevent trans+ Ohioans on Medicaid from obtaining mental health services covered by their insurance.[24] How this policy will be enforced is unknown, leaving health care providers in the dark about whether providing mental health services to privately insured trans-identifying patients will in turn disqualify them from receiving Medicaid funds.
Ohio’s state budget also includes language that redefines sex throughout the entirety of the Ohio Revised Code. This will likely cause significant harm for transgender and intersex people across numerous state programs and services. The text mirrors the White House Executive Order on “gender ideology”[25] and claims there are only two sexes that are “grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”[26] We will see the full effect of this recent implementation start to play out in the coming months.
The Williams Institute[27] has estimated there are only around 84,000 trans people in Ohio—approximately 0.9% of the state’s adult population as of 2021-2023. Regardless of population size, trans+ and intersex people have been, and remain a part of the human experience across cultures.[28] These policies are not only shameful, but they disregard history, health care, and science.[29]
It is not yet clear how this language will impact ID documents and access to state services, but advocacy organizations like TransOhio are encouraging trans+ people to update documents while there is the legal ability to do so, taking into account their own personal risk assessments.[30]
Beyond their direct impacts, anti-trans+ policies tend to embolden attacks on trans+ people. A report from GLAAD found there was a 14% increase in anti-trans incidents between their 2023-24 data and 2024-25 data, noting that the increase coincides with at least four anti-trans Executive Orders and a reported $215 million in anti-trans political ads during the 2024 campaign season.[31] The ACLU also describes a correlation between increases in anti-LGBTQIA+ policy and increases in anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes and violence.[32] By targeting trans+ Ohioans, our legislature contributes to a culture of fear, reflected by Ohio’s dismal ‘F’ grade in LGBTQIA+ safety from Safe Home.[33]
Conclusion
Despite answering the nation’s call to duty, trans+ veterans are being left behind and excluded from resources, benefits, and services they fought for and earned.
What our nation owes to those who serve should not depend on how their bodies are politicized by policymakers. Ohio, and the country, need legislators who serve every veteran, as veterans have dutifully served the nation.
We are grateful to Dara Adkinson, Executive Director of TransOhio, for their partnership on this project.
[1] “Trans+” refers to people who are transgender (their gender identity does not align with the sex recorded at their birth) and those who are gender non-conforming (do not associate with traditional gender norms and are impacted by policies that affect the trans community). For more information on transgender identity, see: “Understanding transgender people: the basics,” Advocates for Trans Equality. Accessed September 17, 2025.
[2] “Executive Order 14168: Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Executive Office of the President. Federal Register. January 20, 2025.
[3] “VA to phase out treatment for gender dysphoria,” Department of Veterans Affairs. March 17, 2025.
[4] “Transgender Veterans and the Veterans Health Administration: Exploring the Experiences of Transgender Veterans in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System,” K. Rosentel, B. J. Hill, C. Lu, and J. T. Barnett. Transgender Health. June 2016. doi: 10.1089/trgh.2016.0006
[5] “By cutting support for trans health care, the VA saves merely pennies per veteran,” Caleb Smith. Center for American Progress. March 19, 2025.
[6] “Discrimination and Experiences Among LGBTQ People in the US: 2020 Survey Results,” Lindsay Mahowald, Matthew Brady, and Caroline Medina. Center for American Progress. April 21, 2021.
[7] Legislative District Data for Veterans and SNAP , “2025 Budget Impacts: House Bill Would Cut Assistance and Raise Costs for Veterans,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. June 9, 2025.
[8] “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) Policy Guide,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. Updated September 2023. Page 5.
[9] “How the Senate Budget Reconciliation SNAP Proposals Will Affect Families in Every US State,” L. Wheaton, L. Giannarelli and S. Minton. Urban Institute. July 2025.
[10] “2025 Budget Impacts: House Bill Would Cut Assistance and Raise Costs for Veterans,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. June 9, 2025.
[11] “5 Key Facts About Medicaid and Veterans,” S. Cervantes, J. Tolbert, A. Burns, and R. Rudowitz. Kaiser Family Foundation. June 30, 2025.
[12] Medicaid expansion, which Ohio opted into in 2014, allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility beyond those Medicaid had traditionally served to include almost all adults making up to 138% of the federal poverty line. Prior to Medicaid expansion going into effect under the Affordable Care Act, most low-income adults were ineligible for Medicaid unless they fit specific categories. For more, see KFF’s analysis.
[13] “Can America keep its promises to veterans?,” Heather Smith. Policy Matters Ohio. August 19, 2025.
[14] KFF. A Closer Look at the Work Requirement Provisions in the 2025 Federal Budget Reconciliation Law. July 30, 2025, and Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Medicaid, CHIP, and Affordable Care Act Marketplace Cuts and Other Health Provisions in the Budget …. July 22, 2025.
[15] https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text#:~:text=%E2%80%9C(IV)%20who%20is%20a%20veteran%20with%20a%20disability%20rated%20as%20total%20under%20section%201155%20of%20title%2038%2C%20United%20States%20Code%3B
[16] Cisgender is an adjective referring to those whose gender identity aligns with their sex recorded at birth.
[17] “Transgender Adults Have Higher Rates of Disability Than Their Cisgender Counterparts,” Madeline Smith-Johnson. Health Aff (Milwood). October 2022. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00500
[18] See Section 243 of bill text. “Committee Releases FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Bill,” Appropriations Chair Tom Cole. House Appropriations Committee. September 1, 2025.
[19] “House HHS Appropriations Bill Would Devastate Trans Adult Health Care Nationwide,” Erin Reed. Erin in the Morning. September 8, 2025.
[20] In this brief, gender-affirming care encompasses all medical, surgical, and mental health services that support trans+ and non-binary people. More broadly, it encompasses any type of care that affirms a person’s gender identity, like hair replacement treatments, secondary sex characteristic enhancement surgeries, and hormone-blocking medications.
[21] “Tracking the rise of anti-trans bills in the U.S.,” Trans Legislation Tracker. Accessed September 17, 2025.
[22] “House Bill 96,” Brian Stewart. The Ohio Legislature 136th General Assembly. Effective June 30, 2025.
[23] The text states: “SECTION 333.13. SOCIAL GENDER TRANSITION: To the extent permitted by federal law, no funds appropriated in Section 333.10 of this act shall be distributed for mental health services that promote or affirm social gender transition, in which an individual goes from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to the individual’s biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from the individual’s biological sex.”
[24] “Ohio Blocks Funding For Trans-Affirming Mental Health Care For Youth And Adults,” S. Baum. Erin in the Morning. July 3, 2025.
[25] “Executive Order 14168: Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Executive Office of the President. Federal Register. January 20, 2025.
[26] “House Bill 96,” Brian Stewart. The Ohio Legislature 136th General Assembly. Effective June 30, 2025. Page 15.
[27] Data from 2021-2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. ”How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?,” The Williams Institute. Accessed September 18, 2025.
[28] “The impact of colonial legacies in the lives of LGBTI+ and other ancestral sexual and gender diverse persons,” International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. May 26, 2023.
[29] Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, Ed. Laura Erickson-Schroth. Oxford University Press. 2014. For information on history, see Chapter 22, “US History.” For information on health care, see Chapter 11, “General, Sexual, and Reproductive Health.” For information on science, see Chapter 6 “Sex and Gender Development.”
[30] TransOhio posts updates to legal challenges on their Instagram. We recommend following them for the most up-to-date information on what is recommended. “Calls to Action,” TransOhio. Accessed September 17, 2025.
[31] Reporting period May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. “2025 GLAAD ALERT Desk Report,” GLAAD. June 2, 2025.
[32] “The impacts of anti-transgender laws and policies,” American Civil Liberties Union. August 2024. Page 15.
[33] “2025 LGBTQ+ State Safety Report Cards,” Rob Gabriele. Safe Home. June 24, 2025.