Transgender veterans' experiences with culture and care: a qualitative study

This study utilizes a phenomenological framework to better understand the experiences of transgender veterans with military culture and VA healthcare. Geertz’s (1973) definitions of culture and social systems was utilized to identify aspects of military culture. Additionally, the minority stress model (Meyer, 2015) is used to understand how gender-related stressors influence perceptions on military culture and accessing VA healthcare services. After completion of semistructured interviews with eight transgender veterans across the country, five clusters and 27 themes were identified through the coding process. Implications for practice, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed within.