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VAPHS Research Staff Receive Inaugural National LGBTQ+ Awards

Taylor Boyer, left, and John Blosnich, received VA’s inaugural awards for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) research.
Taylor Boyer, left, and John Blosnich, received VA’s inaugural awards for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) research.
By Hope Nelson

Two VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) research team members are among the first recipients of a new national award through VA’s LGBTQ+ Health Program Office.

During LGBTQ+ Awareness Week in March, Dr. John Blosnich and Taylor Boyer received VA’s first-ever national Monica Helms and Angela B. Sheedy TGD Research Paper of the Year Award for their paper titled “Patient Experiences and Provider Perspectives on Accessing Gender-Affirming Surgical Services in the Veterans Health Administration.” 

The two are researchers with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) at VAPHS. Blosnich, who has a doctorate in public health sciences, is a research health scientist, while Boyer is a health science specialist.

VA’s Patient Care Services LGBTQ+ Health Program Associate Director of Data and Analytics Dr. Lexi Matza presented Blosnich and Boyer with the award at VAPHS’ University Drive campus Research Office Building.

The award is named for Monica Helms, a U.S. Navy Veteran and transgender activist credited with creating the first transgender flag, and Army reservist Veteran Angela B. Sheedy. Sheedy joined Helms to found the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA). The award is the first of its kind from VA’s national LGBTQ+ Health Program office, along with the Leonard Matlovich LGBTQ+ Research Paper of the Year Award. Matlovich, who received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart while serving with the Air Force in Vietnam, purposely outed himself as gay to fight the military’s ban on gay service members. 

“We’re trying to encourage more research in the LGBTQ+ area, so we started these research awards this year,” said Matza, who has a doctorate in anthropology. “The goal is to build competency in VA for LGBTQ+ research.”

VAPHS Director Donald Koenig extended his congratulations.

“We are thrilled when researchers bring attention to challenges and problems and help us find innovative ways to provide better care to all our Veterans,” he said. “We’re very proud of them.”

The paper is about the researchers’ study of patients’ and providers’ perspectives on Veterans’ access to gender-affirming surgery and other gender-affirming medical interventions not offered at VA. It notes, at the outset, that gender-affirming surgery has been shown to improve the mental health of transgender and gender diverse Veterans.

VA does not currently provide gender-affirming surgery. However, VA announced in 2021 it would in the future offer the surgery for transgender Veterans. The rule-making process to allow this policy change has been ongoing for several years.

“So, since we started this study, there is hope,” said Boyer. 

The two met their recruitment goal for participants in just four weeks, with Veterans continuing to call even after recruitment had closed. They both noted VA’s LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator network had been with them all along the way, spreading the word about the study to recruit Veterans nationwide.

“Veterans wanted to be involved in this research,” said Boyer. “When we started interviews, they told us how important it was for them. They felt this call to action to step up and share their experiences with us not only for themselves but for their fellow Veterans who maybe couldn’t advocate for themselves and to ultimately improve care for the next generation.”

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