NORTON META TAG

17 June 2025

***UPDATE 26JUN25: Extremely disturbing and -unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans & Disarray at Department of Veterans Affairs imperils patient care, internal documents reveal & Unpacking claims that VA doctors can deny care to Democrats, unmarried veterans 16JUN & 23MAI & 17JUN25

 JUST days after NOT MY pres drumpf's / trump's big military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army we learn he only loves the members of the military who aren't democrats or single or do not share the same "beliefs" this administration does. Fascist nazi leadership of the German military issued orders to dishonorably discharge anyone in the German military who did not believe in hitler, did not believe in fascism. Sec of Defense fascist fotze petie Lola hegspeth has initiated and enforced the removal of U.S. Military leadership who do not believe the same as the drumpf / trump administration. Members of hitler's military swore an oath to hitler, it will not be a surprise if American service persons will have to swear an oath to their draft dodging c-i-c NOT MY pres cadet bone spurs drumpf / trump. From The Guardian.....Regarding the "clarifying update" from Snopes, the article is somewhat confusing but the bottom line seems to be if descriptions of people and / or their status in life had not been removed from VA rules and regulations and bylaws this controversy would not exist. The fact that the following descriptions and terms that were listed as not providing for preferential treatment and not allowing for discrimination based on age, national origin, politics, marital status, disability and prior protected activity were not removed from VA rules and regulations and bylaws there wouldn't be this controversy and confusion. *** Here is another clarification from PolitiFact on 26 JUNE, click the clarification link.....***

Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans


Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’

Mon 16 Jun 2025 06.00 EDT

Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.

The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.

Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.

Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.

Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show. The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists.

In making the changes, VA officials cite the president’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings.

Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching.

They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is the nation’s largest integrated hospital system, with more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually.

In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.

He said the rule changes were nothing more than “a formality”, but confirmed that they were made to comply with Trump’s executive order. Kasperowicz also said the revisions were necessary to “ensure VA policy comports with federal law”. He did not say which federal law or laws required these changes.

Until the recent changes, VA hospitals’ bylaws said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter”. Now, several of those items – including “national origin,” “politics” and “marital status” – have been removed from that list.

Similarly, the bylaw on “decisions regarding medical staff membership” no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a labor organization or “lawful political party affiliation”.

Dr Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, called the new rules “extremely disturbing and unethical”.

Disarray at Department of Veterans Affairs imperils patient care, internal documents reveal


Unit closures, reduced hours of operation and exam backlogs reported after Trump administration reductions


Aaron Glantz
Fri 23 May 2025 06.00 EDT

The documents paint a grim picture of chaos across the department’s sprawling network of 170 veterans affairs (VA) hospitals and more than 1,300 outpatient clinics, which serve 9 million US military veterans.

At the Danville VA medical center, in rural Illinois near the Indiana border, so many nurses resigned that hospital administrators were forced to close the acute care unit to new patients.

The dysfunction has also included a backlog of 2,298 unread radiology exams in Orlando, Florida, and the cancellation of a dozen rheumatology appointments in Montrose, New York. In Battle Creek, Michigan, a spate of resignations, early separation offers and a hiring freeze has led to a “critical” shortage of police officers responsible for protecting VA patients.

The Guardian’s investigation, based on a review of “issue briefs” filed within the last month to the agency’s central office by staff at more than a dozen hospitals, comes at a time of increased scrutiny of the Trump administration’s handling of the VA.

In response to a detailed list of findings from the Guardian, the VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz argued the conditions described didn’t represent a problem.

“The only thing these documents show is that VA has a robust and well functioning system to flag potential problems and quickly fix them,” he said in an email. “The Guardian’s attempt to spin these outdated, routine reports to make VA look bad is dishonest.”

Kasperowicz did not dispute that the acute care unit in Danville, Illinois, had been closed, but said the hospital was “actively recruiting replacement nurses”. In Orlando, he acknowledged the backlog of radiology “after two radiologists quit”, but said it had since been reduced by 40% – meaning nearly 1,400 veterans were still waiting.

The issues raised by the documents are “typical in any large healthcare system” and “have nothing to do with VA’s reform plans”, he said.

The VA secretary, Doug Collins, has promised to cut 80,000 jobs and has said he will do so without reducing the quality of care or the availability of benefits. Earlier media reports have revealed the administration’s actions have imperiled life-saving cancer trialssuicide prevention research and treatments for opioid addiction.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee of veterans affairs, said the Guardian’s reporting showed the agency to be “rash and reckless”.

Representative Mark Takano of California, the ranking Democrat on the House committee on veterans affairs, said the documents deepened the concerns of lawmakers who have already raised alarms over the potential impact of the Trump administration’s policies. “When we undercut an agency established to work for veterans, we fail them,” he said.

The agency has already dismissed 2,500 workers and canceled more than 500 contracts.

Blumenthal said those dismissals, which primarily targeted new hires, “destroyed morale” and harmed recruiting. “The ramifications are sweeping,” he said. “It infects every aspect of the work environment”, with “potentially life-threatening consequences”.

Collins said the dismissals and large-scale staff contraction are designed to reduce bureaucracy that often keeps people from accessing healthcare.

However, Federal News Network reported on 20 May that more than 14,000 VA employees in healthcare positions had applied to leave their jobs through government-wide separation initiatives, citing an internal agency dashboard. Those requesting a buyout or early retirement included more than 1,700 nurses, nearly 900 advanced medical support assistants and more than 200 physicians.

The documents obtained by the Guardian show that some of the current disarray tracks back to the department’s aggressive “return to office” mandate, which prompted staff to depart before replacements were in place.

The National Teleradiology Center based at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System saw “a substantial exodus” following the mandate, according to one document. As of 15 May, one-third of image reads did not meet the legally required response time. “Operational capacity is continuing to diminish,” the document notes.

In interviews the week before the Memorial Day weekend, veterans expressed frustration with the dysfunction, which has resulted in lost jobs and delayed appointments, and a concern that the agency – which enjoys the trust of 92% of veterans, according to a 2024 survey – could be at risk.

“This isn’t normal,” said Matthew Crescenzo, 32, an Afghanistan war veteran, who was laid off on 25 February after Doge canceled the contract he was working on that was meant to improve healthcare access to veterans who live in far-flung locations. The layoff prompted him to seek mental healthcare, but he hasn’t been able to access it.

“We’re seeing a unilateral movement on the part of the executive to dismantle services that benefit veterans,” said Christopher Purdy, an Afghanistan war veteran and founder of the Chamberlain Network, a non-profit that mobilizes veterans to protect democracy through organizing, education and community engagement.

Unite for Veterans rally is planned for Washington DC on 6 June. Organizers say they are modeling it on the 1932 “Bonus Army” march on Washington – when thousands of first world war veterans gathered on the National Mall demanding promised benefits, only to have the US military deployed against them.

Purdy said organizers invoked the Bonus Army in planning the 6 June march, because “we’re in a moment where it’s not clear that the country is still going to fulfill its obligations to the veteran community”. Gathering on the mall was necessary, he added, because the typical levers of accountability, including congressional oversight, had failed.

Crescenzo, who has been receiving VA healthcare since his discharge from the US army in 2017, said he had not seen this type of dysfunction before. Amid dismissals and threats of further job cuts, employees seem unable to focus, with the remaining providers under stress and less able to care for veterans.

On 28 February, three days after he was dismissed from his job as a VA contractor, Crescenzo requested a referral to a mental health provider. He wanted help managing the layoff, along with post-traumatic stress disorder he developed after his service and more newly diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

His primary care doctor requested that Crescenzo see a psychiatrist for “possible medication management”, but no one followed up to schedule the appointment. On 14 April, emails show, Crescenzo had still not received care – or even been given an appointment. “I have been attempting to reach them for weeks with no success,” he wrote.

A nurse wrote back extending “my apology for the above concerns”, but after yet another follow-up from Crescenzo, stated he would need to wait an additional week or two to schedule the psychiatric appointment. “Sorry for the delay,” the nurse wrote.

Crescenzo still hasn’t seen a psychiatrist, but was finally able to schedule an appointment – for 15 July.

Unpacking claims that VA doctors can deny care to Democrats, unmarried veterans

A Guardian report sparked rumors about changes to VA rules.


Published June 17, 2025

  • In mid-June 2025, a claim circulated on social media that new rules implemented by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs allowed doctors to refuse treatment to Democrats and unmarried veterans. 
  • The claims stemmed from a report (archived) published by The Guardian, on June 16, 2025. That report said doctors at VA hospitals "could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order" by U.S. President Donald Trump. 
  • The Guardian's reporting relied on information from anonymous sources, so Snopes was unable to independently confirm its veracity. The reporter who wrote the article said he was unable to share original source documents without compromising his sources.
  • Multiple people within the Trump administration have called The Guardian's report false, and a VA spokesperson said the agency has "asked the outlet to retract it." A spokesperson for The Guardian said on June 17, 2025, that the news outlet has "no plans to retract the story," but added that it is "considering additional context provided by the VA after publication." The news outlet later updated the story and its headline.
  • Snopes did uncover documents from one VA health care system showing that some of the language in its rules changed between 2023 and 2025. However, we were unable to independently confirm exactly when the changes took place or why they occurred.

In mid-June 2025, a claim (archived) circulated on social media that new rules implemented by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs allowed doctors to refuse treatment to Democrats and unmarried veterans.

For example, VoteVets, a progressive veterans advocacy group, shared the claim in an Instagram post (archived) on June 16:

 

 

The claim appeared elsewhere on (archivedInstagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived), often alongside a report published by The Guardian (archived), a British newspaper, on June 16, 2025. Additionally, scores of Snopes readers emailed us and searched our website to ask whether the claim was true.

The Guardian's reporting relied on information from anonymous sources, so Snopes was unable to independently confirm its veracity. Aaron Glantz, the reporter who wrote The Guardian article, said he was unable to share original source documents without compromising his sources.

However, Snopes did uncover documents from one VA health care system showing that some of the language in its rules changed between 2023 and 2025 (more on that at the end of this story). 

Snopes reached out to the VA, as well as several individual VA medical centers, for confirmation of the reported rule changes and explanations as to why they occurred. 

A VA spokesperson initially pointed us to an X post (archived) by Secretary Doug Collins that called The Guardian's report "ridiculous" and said all eligible veterans would continue to receive the benefits and services they've earned. The spokesperson followed up by providing a longer statement that read, in part: "The Guardian story is false, and VA has asked the outlet to retract it." 

On June 17, 2025, a spokesperson for The Guardian told Snopes via an emailed statement: "While we have no plans to retract the story - which highlights the VA's removal of 'politics' and 'marital status' from a list of protections against discrimination within its bylaws - we are considering additional context provided by the VA after publication." The news outlet updated the story and its headline on June 18, 2025. 

Here's a breakdown of The Guardian report that sparked the online claims and what we know about changes to the VA rules:

Claims stem from article published by The Guardian

The claims stemmed from a report (archived) published by The Guardian, a left-leaning news site, on June 16, 2025, originally titled, "'Extremely disturbing and unethical': new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans."

The Guardian originally reported that doctors at VA hospitals "could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order" by Republican U.S. President Donald Trump. The new rules also applied to psychologists, dentists and other occupations, and had "already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers," according to The Guardian.

According to documents it reviewed, "doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity," The Guardian reported.

VA officials cited Trump's January 2025 executive order, titled, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" as the reason behind the changes, according to The Guardian.

That executive order proclaimed the federal government will recognize two sexes, male and female. It went on to define sex as "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female," and added that "'sex' is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of 'gender identity.'" An expert provided Snopes analysis on how this executive order applied to the VA rule changes, which we detail below.

In response to The Guardian's questions, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz reportedly "did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their martial status or political affiliation, but said 'all eligible veterans will always be welcome at the VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law.'"

Kasperowicz reportedly said the rule changes were "a formality," but "confirmed they were made to comply with Trump's executive order." He added that the changes were needed to "ensure the VA policy comports with federal law," but did not say which federal law or laws required the changes, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian updated report

On June 18, 2025, the Guardian updated the report (archived here) and its headline in response to information provided by the VA. 

The news outlet wrote the following note at the bottom of the article:

This article and its headline were amended on 18 June 2025. An earlier version said that under the new rules, medical staff could refuse to treat veterans based on their beliefs or marital status, and that candidates for hospital positions could face discrimination on grounds of further characteristics removed from the bylaws. After publication, the VA contacted the Guardian citing a 2013 policy directive that it says will continue to protect patients from discrimination despite the redactions in its bylaws; the VA also cited federal law protecting staff from discrimination. The VA further emphasized that federal law gives all eligible veterans access to hospital services. The VA's comments on this were added.

Snopes found several key changes in the language of the updated article compared with the original version.

First, the updated headline read: "VA hospitals remove politics and marital status from guidelines protecting patients from discrimination."

The first sentence of the report was also changed. It previously read: "Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump."

The updated first sentence read: "The Department of Veterans Affairs has imposed new guidelines on VA hospitals nationwide that remove language that explicitly prohibited doctors from discriminating against patients based on their political beliefs or marital status."

Language about the possibility of doctors and medical staff being "barred" from working at VA hospitals based on characteristics like their marital status and political party affiliation was removed from the report. Instead, the updated article read: "Explicit protections for VA doctors and other medical staff based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity have also been removed, documents reviewed by the Guardian show."

Comments attributed to Kasperowicz were also revised in the updated article, which said the VA press secretary "did not dispute that language requiring medical staff to treat patients without discriminating on the basis of politics and marital status had been removed from the bylaws."

Additionally, The Guardian provided further context from the VA in its updated report:

The VA said federal laws and a 2013 policy directive that prohibits discrimination on the basis of marital status or political affiliation would not allow patients within the categories removed from its bylaws to be excluded from treatment or allow discrimination against medical professionals.

"Under no circumstances whatsoever would VA ever deny appropriate care to any eligible veterans or appropriate employment to any qualified potential employees," a VA representative said.

Trump administration disputed The Guardian's reporting

The updates came after multiple members of the Trump administration disputed The Guardian's reporting on the new VA rules. 

On June 16, 2025, the same day the article was published, VA Secretary Doug Collins called The Guardian's story "false" and "ridiculous." In a post on X (archived) responding to Glantz, Collins wrote:

More proof that the fake news CANNOT be trusted. This story is not only false, it's ridiculous. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly also responded to Glantz in a post (archived) on X: 

A VA spokesperson provided Snopes with a lengthier statement via email that called The Guardian's story "false" and said the VA has "asked the outlet to retract it."

The statement attributed to VA deputy assistant secretary for public affairs Macaulay Porter read, in part:

Here are the facts:

VA recently updated its medical center bylaws to ensure compliance with White House executive orders, such as the order on Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.

These updates will have no impact whatsoever on who VA treats or employs.

The fact that the Guardian is trying to misrepresent these changes as anything more than a formality underscores its extreme liberal bias and steadfast commitment to spreading disinformation.

The statement also referred to multiple "allegations" within The Guardian's original report that the VA deemed false, citing "federal law." Here are the examples the agency provided:

Guardian Allegation: "Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump."

Response: False. Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law. 

Guardian Allegation: "But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law."

Response: False. Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law.

Guardian Allegation: "Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show."

Response: False. Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law.

Guardian Allegation: Similarly, the bylaw on "decisions regarding medical staff membership" no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a labor organization or "lawful political party affiliation".

Response: False. Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law.

Guardian Allegation: "Under the new policy, some may have to register at a hospital in another region and travel more than a hundred miles to see a doctor."

Response: False. Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law. 

In an email to Snopes on June 18, 2025, Porter cited a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of marital status or political affiliation and another that governs union participation rights.

Porter added that "health care eligibility" is based on two other federal laws, "not on categories such as political affiliation or marital status." She continued:

Thus, on that statutory basis, VHA Directive 1019, which governs all medical services provided by VA, prohibits discrimination in the provision of services on the basis of marital status or political affiliation. Federal law and VHA Directive 1019 prohibit discrimination. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law. 

Palo Alto bylaws show changes to language

Prior to the reported changes, "VA hospitals' bylaws said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients 'on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter,'" The Guardian reported. Now, "national origin," "politics" and "marital status," among other items, have been removed from the list, according to the newspaper.

According to The Guardian, VA rules also no longer forbid hospitals from discriminating against staff candidates based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, labor organization membership or "lawful political party affiliation."

Glantz said he was unable to share original source documents with Snopes without compromising his sources. However, he directed us to current medical staff bylaws (archived) for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California that are posted online. The document listed an approval date of April 2, 2025.

Snopes compared the 2025 Palo Alto bylaws with an older archived set (dated March 27, 2023, but unsigned) and confirmed that language in at least two different sections had changed — notably, language about marital status and politics was absent from the most recent bylaws.

However, we were unable to independently confirm exactly when the changes took place or why they occurred.

A spokesperson for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System told Snopes via email that our inquiry was a "question of national policy" that would be "best addressed" by contacting the VA's Office of Media Relations. 

As we noted above, a VA spokesperson told Snopes the agency "recently updated its medical center bylaws to ensure compliance with White House executive orders, such as the order on Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." However, the VA did not elaborate on how the White House's executive orders influenced changes to the agency's rules.

Glantz pointed Snopes to relevant sections within the bylaws that fall under Article III. Medical Staff Membership. The first is part of Section 3.03 Code of Conduct.

This section in the 2025 bylaws read, in part (emphasis ours):

1. Acceptable Behavior: The VA expects that members of the medical staff will serve diligently, loyally, and cooperatively. They must avoid misconduct and other activities that conflict with their duties; exercise courtesy and dignity; and otherwise conduct themselves, both on and off duty, in a manner that reflects positively upon themselves and VA. Acceptable behavior includes the following (1) being on duty as scheduled. (2) being impartial in carrying out official duties and avoiding any action that might result in, or look as though, a medical staff member is giving preferential treatment to any person, group or organization, (3) not discriminating on the basis of any legally protected status, including legally protected status such as race, color, religion, sex, or prior protected activity in any employment matter or in providing benefits under any law administered by VA.

That same section in the bylaws dating back to 2023 included language about national origin, politics and marital status that was absent in the 2025 bylaws. The 2023 bylaws read, in part (emphasis ours):

1. Acceptable Behavior: The VA expects that members of the medical staff will serve diligently, loyally, and cooperatively. They must avoid misconduct and other activities that conflict with their duties; exercise courtesy and dignity; and otherwise conduct themselves, both on and off duty, in a manner that reflects positively upon themselves and VA. Acceptable behavior includes the following (1) being on duty as scheduled. (2) being impartial in carrying out official duties and avoiding any action that might result in, or look as though, a medical staff member is giving preferential treatment to any person, group or organization, (3) not discriminating on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status, or disability in any employment matter or in providing benefits under any law administered by VA

Language in a section about "decisions regarding medical staff membership" also changed from the 2023 to 2025 bylaws.

Section 3.01 Eligibility for Membership on the Medical Staff in the 2025 bylaws read, in part:

3. Decisions regarding Medical Staff membership are made consistent with law and without regard to an individual's legally protected status, such as race, color, religion, sex, or prior protected activity.

In the 2023 bylaws, the same section read:

3. Decisions regarding Medical Staff membership are made without discrimination for reasons such as race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, lawful partisan political affiliation, marital status, physical or mental handicap when the individual is qualified to do the work, age, membership or non-membership in a labor organization, or on the basis of any other criteria unrelated to professional qualifications.

Experts weigh in on VA rule changes 

Snopes reached out to Gary Barthel, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and managing partner at the Military Law Center, to gain more insight about the changes to VA rules.

Trump's executive order, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," essentially "ordered federal agencies to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, and to no longer include gender identity as a protected class," Barthel said.

As a result, under the new VA bylaws, the agency "removed gender identity and other certain classes not specifically required under the Civil Rights Act of 1964," such as marital status and political affiliation, Barthel added.

But Barthel said veterans should not be concerned about losing their benefits due to various protections that are in place.

"The changes are not likely to have any impact on a nonmarried or Democratic veteran from receiving care and if a care provider refused to provide care because of a veteran's political affiliation or marital status, they likely would be disciplined for doing so and could lose their license to practice," he wrote in an email to Snopes.

However, other experts have expressed concerns about what the rule changes mean in practice.

Dr. Kenneth Kizer, the VA's top health care official during the Clinton Administration, told The Guardian they "seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected."

Dr. Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, also called the new rules "extremely disturbing and unethical," The Guardian reported. 

Sources

Updates

June 18, 2025: This article was updated with information about The Guardian revising its original report and headline.

June 18, 2025: This story was updated to include additional information from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Megan Loe is a web producer and writer based in Washington state.

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