Nation’s 2nd-largest system aims to assist growing number of gay vets after repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ applies for funds for trans clinic
TRANSFORMING THE VA | Navy vet Laura Kiewicz, left, who manages the LGBT program, became the VA’s first employee to transition on the job. Air Force vet Kylie Slaughter, right, a mental health and rehab technician, is also trans and wants to work in the trans clinic if it receives funding. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)
Navy veteran Laura Kiewicz came to Texas two years ago to work for the VA North Texas Health Care System.
Kiewicz, a nurse educator, would later become the VA’s first employee to transition on the job.
“Because I was the very first, it took lots and lots of education for HR on what I needed to do,” Kiewicz said.
Kiewicz joined the VA’s LGBT diversity action group late last year after it was created to help foster inclusively in the aftermath of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The group has grown in interest among employees and veteran patients, and became an official LGBT program with Kiewicz as manager. The VA officially launched an awareness campaign about the program this week for LGBT Pride Month.
“Partly because of the repeal of DADT and changing times, we were seeing more and more LGBT veterans,” Kiewicz said. “So this is really a program that we needed.”
The program helps create awareness, provides education to employees and veterans, works with care providers and identifies resources. Earlier this year, the VA’s 4,700 employees completed inclusively training on specific LGBT care.
Kiewicz said it was important to expand the program’s outreach to patients to help them learn about resources and feel confident the VA is welcoming of LGBT veterans. The Dallas VA system is the second-largest in the country, serving roughly 113,000 veterans in 38 Texas counties and two counties in southern Oklahoma, according to its website.
Michael Moore, who was discharged under DADT in 2006 but goes to the Dallas VA for his healthcare, said he’s glad there is a local program to help LGBT veterans and show the military’s growing inclusion.
“It shows that not only the military but the veteran department is trying to progress with the rest of the country,” he said.
Jen Knowlden, a lesbian veteran who served almost eight years in the Army before retirement in 2009, is also a patient at the Dallas VA. She used to live in Kansas City and use the local VA there, which she said didn’t have any LGBT outreach, so she is pleased the Dallas hospital has a program.
“I think it’s an important resource for LGBT veterans,” she said. “I think it’s good they’re reaching out to LGBT veterans because I’m sure there are those whose don’t go to the VA because they’re not sure it’s an accepting place.”
The Dallas VA made headlines in 2011 after a nurse went on an anti-gay rant during a counseling session with lesbian Marine veteran Esther Garatie, who was seeking treatment for possible post-traumatic stress disorder. Garatie filed a complaint for the nurse’s behavior and the nurse was later forced to resign over the incident.
While similar incidents haven’t occurred since, Kiewicz said the LGBT Program also helps prevent them before they happen because of the training.
Kiewicz said she’s never had a negative experience at the center, even after her transition and name change was announced to employees. She said even if some people have negative views of the LGBT community, their job is to work with everyone and treat every veteran the same.
“I’ve not had one instance of any person being inappropriate,” she said. “They have zero tolerance on any type of discrimination.”
During her several months as program manager, Kiewicz has helped with training, education and even co-authored a proposal to get a transgender clinic at the hospital. The proposal was presented at the regional level, received a positive response and has been submitted for funding.
If the Dallas VA adds the trans clinic, it would be the third VA in the country to have a trans focus.
Boston’s VA center has an interdisciplinary transgender treatment team that provides comprehensive care for transgender veterans and Minneapolis’ VA Medical Center has a program for transgender veterans.
Kiewicz said she pushed for the clinic because of the high volume of trans veterans. It’s estimated that there are three times more trans people in the veteran population than in the general population. She said the suicide rate among trans veterans is also higher, as is job and housing discrimination, so those issues also need to be addressed.
“Trans veterans, their care is fragmented, so it takes some specialized training,” she said.
Kylie Slaughter, a mental health and rehab technician at the Dallas VA, is trans and wants to work in the trans clinic.
She joined the Air Force in 1989 and spent two decades serving all over the world and receiving the rank of master sergeant. But she says her life really began when she left the military in 2009 when she could transition.
“That’s when I retired and I felt when my life was actually mine,” Slaughter said.
She said she can relate to trans veteran patients and would like the center to add a trans clinic.
“If they see me, it breaks the ice,” she said. “They feel more comfortable.”
Former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck’s book, Warrior Princess, which outlines her transition after leaving the service, has brought national attention to transgender veterans. Trans people still can’t serve openly in the military.
Kiewicz served in Vietnam with the Navy. During her service, she recalled two sailors who were discharged for suspicion of being gay. She feared what would happen to her if she came out as trans.
“I didn’t want to get a dishonorable discharge,” she said. “I really suppressed it and did all the manly things.”
But over time, Kiewicz said being female became more and more part of who she was and she wanted to live authentically. She said many transgender people join the military in an effort to “man-up” and later transition after they leave service.
“A lot of transgender veterans have those same feelings,” she said. “I’m proud of who I am. If I see a trans vet, I stop and talk to them.”
Kiewicz said she thinks trans people will be able to serve openly one day.
“I think our time is coming,” she said.
Kiewicz also wants the VA to cover gender reassignment surgery, something she said they don’t cover yet. But she’s willing to be patient.
“In the short time since I’ve been here, we have a committee and now in the process of having a trans clinic,” she said, adding that the program will only grow. “People know who I am. In the short amount of time, I’ve been able to initiate change.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 21, 2013.