According to internal messages reviewed by The Advocate, employees were allegedly told by local leadership that the crackdown on rainbow apparel was linked to an "executive order." This directive appears to be a local interpretation or invocation of the Trump administration's "Defending Women" executive order, which redefined gender as strictly binary and based on sex assigned at birth.

• One employee message indicated that a physician warned a colleague, "Anything rainbow like lanyards can get us fired on the spot."

• Another staff member reported that they were told that "Central Office is coming down on our leadership" and that "per executive order, you cannot have lanyards, rainbow magnets, [or] shirts."

The employees report receiving no official, written policy change to support the warnings, making the directives seem arbitrary and causing confusion over official VA policy. One staff member, however, wrote that a supervisor later "backtracked all of it and said flyers, lanyards, shirts, [and] banners associated with clinical care of LGBTQ vets are approved by central office," suggesting a mixed and unclear internal message.

Amidst Broader Policy Shifts

The reported situation at the Hampton VA Medical Center comes after broader policy shifts within the Veterans Affairs Department. In March, the VA rescinded Directive 1341, a long-standing policy that ensured transgender, nonbinary, and intersex veterans received respectful, clinically appropriate health care and were protected from discrimination. This move also cited President Donald Trump's "Defending Women" executive order.

Earlier this year, the VA also unveiled new rules banning LGBTQ+ Pride flags and other unofficial banners from display in public VA facilities and offices, limiting displays to the American flag, state flags, military service flags, U.S. agency flags, and the POW/MIA flag, to bring "consistency to agency messaging."

A provider at another East Coast VA hospital stated they had "heard that about Hampton," but noted that any facilities banning rainbow items would be "going against policy." The VA has not issued a clarifying statement on whether the Hampton directive was approved by headquarters or issued independently.

Learn more about a previous change in policy with this video: LGBTQ Pride flags banned at VA facilities under new policy. This YouTube video describes the new VA policy that banned the display of LGBTQ Pride flags and other unofficial banners in department facilities.