VA hospital employees allegedly told not to wear rainbow items because of the president’s order “Anything rainbow like lanyards can get us fired

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VA hospital employees allegedly told not to wear rainbow items because of the president’s order
“Anything rainbow like lanyards can get us fired on the spot.”

VA hospital employees allegedly told not to wear rainbow items because of president's order - LGBTQ Nation

“Anything rainbow like lanyards can get us fired on the spot.”

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Employees at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Virginia say they were warned earlier this month not to wear or display LGBTQ+ Pride-themed items.

According to The Advocate, internal messages between employees at the VA’s Hampton Medical Center suggest the directive came in response to the January 20 executive order withdrawing federal recognition of transgender people and banning federal agencies from “promoting” so-called “gender ideology.”

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The warning reportedly came from local leadership sometime during the week of October 13, but it’s unclear from The Advocate’s reporting precisely when or with whom it originated. Several messages appear to suggest that Michael W. Harper, the hospital’s interim executive director, told staffers at a recent morning report that they could not “promote” the LGBTQ+ community — comments he reportedly attempted to walk back the following day.

“Anything rainbow like lanyards can get us fired on the spot,” one doctor at Hampton reportedly told a colleague. However, the employee who recounted that exchange also noted that there is “nothing in writing that says this.”

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“Mr. Harper said as much in the morning report yesterday,” another staffer wrote in one message. “This morning, he backtracked all of it and said flyers, lanyards, shirts, [and] banners associated with clinical care of LGBTQ vets are approved by central office.”

The same staffer later added that Harper had “acted like other people said it, but he totally said it. You can’t ‘promote that community,’” according to The Advocate.


Another employee reportedly wrote in a separate message that supervisors at Hampton had relayed that “per executive order, you cannot have lanyards, rainbow magnets, [or] shirts … and Central Office is coming down on our leadership, which is spilling down to us.” Similarly, another staffer claimed that Harper had threatened “disciplinary action” against Hampton employees who did not comply with his alleged directive. The same staffer noted that hospital leadership had instructed staff to comply to avoid facing “disciplinary action.”

According to The Advocate, Harper has not commented on the alleged directive, and the VA has not clarified whether it was approved by headquarters. However, a doctor at another East Coast VA hospital told the outlet that they’d heard about Hampton’s ban on Pride-related items.

In March, the VA cited the president’s anti-trans Executive Order 14168 in announcing that it had rescinded VHA Directive 1341(4), which required “the respectful delivery of health care” for transgender and intersex veterans, and that it would “phase out treatment for gender dysphoria.” And earlier this month, VA doctors were instructed to stop providing referrals to veterans seeking gender-affirming care from private medical providers.​