In hospitals across the country, an underground resistance is brewing — and it’s not happening in the shadows of a far-off battlefield, but inside the sterile white walls of the Veterans Affairs medical system. While Trump’s administration rips gender-affirming care from the hands of transgender veterans, some VA doctors are flipping the script — and risking it all.
“We’re building the underground as fast as we can,” one VA doctor said, speaking from the frontlines of a quiet but determined rebellion. These aren’t radicals; they’re physicians in scrubs and stethoscopes, now smuggling care to transgender veterans through coded notes, quiet referrals, and rainbow pins clipped on like armor. If it sounds like something out of a Cold War thriller, it might as well be — only this time, the battle is for the dignity and survival of trans lives.
The New Lavender Scare
“This is Lavender Scare 2.0,” a senior VA physician declared. Doctors are being watched, silenced, and even reported for simply uttering the word “transgender.” Flags and pronouns? Gone. Pride events? Canceled. Instead of healing, Trump’s VA is now a minefield where showing allyship can get you fired.
But while the White House cracks down, a hidden network of providers is doing what they’ve always sworn to do: care. These doctors are crafting “back-channel” referrals, sneaking prescriptions through while they can, and guiding patients to LGBTQ-affirming clinics. As one doctor said, “If I get fired, I can’t help anyone. So I stay. I resist. I try to keep the door open.”
Trans Vets Caught in the Crossfire
For trans veterans, the rollback isn’t political — it’s personal. A transgender Army vet, once proud of being one of the first to access gender-affirming care in the VA system, now fears losing her medication altogether. “If my hormone therapy is cut off, I will die,” she said bluntly. It’s not hyperbole — for her and thousands like her, this care is survival.
She described how trans vets don’t want to take away care from others — they just want the same right to be healthy. “Most vets don’t hate us,” she said. “They just want their own care. Cis guys at the VA tell me, ‘I don’t care what you do — I just want my back surgery.’” In other words: the hate’s not coming from the rank and file. It’s coming from the top.
Code-Switching, Rainbow Pins, and Quiet Defiance
Despite gag orders, VA physicians are showing up — sometimes in full queer regalia. One doctor says she dresses for work like she’s going to Pride, all to let her trans patients know someone still has their back. “Being queer in the VA right now feels like carrying a torch in a storm,” she said. “But someone has to do it.”
This patchwork resistance is more than symbolism. It’s about slipping in a prescription here, a surgical letter there. It’s about reminding trans vets that while their government may turn its back, their doctors won’t. “We’ve had to train ourselves to speak in code again,” said one physician. But they’re speaking — loud and clear.
Lives on the Line, Trust in Tatters
Beyond the immediate danger to health, Trump’s ban has shredded the trust between trans vets and the agency meant to serve them. With lawsuits filed and rights in flux, many trans veterans now look outside the VA entirely, bracing for the worst.
Still, within those embattled clinics, a silent vow pulses between allies: protect trans lives, no matter the cost. As one vet put it: “They erased us. Again. But I know who’s still fighting. And they know I’ll never stop.”
And in today’s America, that fight — rainbow pins and all — is nothing short of revolutionary.