Wong asks about transgender discharges and outreach challenges

Councilmember Wong.

Thank you, Jim.

All right.

I want to go back because.

I'm a little confused over here.

So you have...

Between 2000 and 2014, approximately 1,300 transgender individuals are discharged from the military because of their gender identity.

So.

That's because it's a direct result of don't ask, don't tell, right?

Or this is because of something else.

And I think my question is, you have to go back to them and saying that you are eligible for benefits.

Is that right?

And how are you going to relay that message?

Because it seemed to me that...

They got discharged because of their gender identity, and now you want to go back and say, oh, we want you to come forward because of your gender identity.

You're allowed these benefits.

It seems to be a message that they don't even want to understand.

Please talk about it.

Yeah, so in regards to transgender individuals who were discharged for that prior to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, that is something that we are seeing is happening even more now with there's directly a trans ban.

So currently right now, if you have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, you are unable to serve in the military and you will be discharged.

So for us, what we're trying to see is that there are certain city benefits, even if you may not be eligible for federal benefits, and I'll pass over to Noah to speak a little bit more,

but that you are here in New York City able to be eligible for the benefits that you have served, and we can provide that documentation to show that.

Thank you for that.

Yes, it's another layer that we have to deal with to find those veterans.

Like you said, now we have to go back and let them know, like, you are eligible for more benefits than you think.

And, you know, for the veteran community,

It's tough just to find them to say, hey, you're eligible for just the general, the most general benefits.

But it is just a little step further.

It's a little bit harder to find them, those that were discharged necessarily, and say, please come back to the, you know, back into the fold.

We want to help you.

We want to help you get your discharge changed or get you eligible for benefits.

So it goes back to that outreach component.

So just starting that conversation about just benefits in general.

And then we from there, then we get to the ideally those discharge upgrade cases.