FROM AVER NATIONAL
January 12, 2024

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 9, 2024

RE:  Anti-LGBTQ+ Provisions Stripped from NDAA

Contact:  AVER Public Affairs, 678.596.1311, dannyingram1776@gmail.com
San Antonio, TX “Military City USA” (JAN 9, 2024)

On December 26, 2023, President Biden signed into law H.R. 2670, the “National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024.” The version of the must-pass legislation signed by the president had been stripped of a number of controversial anti-LGBTQ+ amendments added to the bill by conservative members of the House. These amendments included bans on gender confirmation treatment to service members and their dependents, bans on displays of Pride flags at DOD facilities, and bans of LGBTQ-positive books in DOD school libraries.

“The passage of the NDAA without anti-LGBTQ+ amendments is a huge victory for LGBTQ+ service members and the United States Military,” said Penn Baker, National President of American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), the nation’s oldest LGBTQ+ Veterans Service Organization. “AVER and our allies had worked with members of Congress throughout much of the previous year to remove these harmful sections of the NDAA,” said Baker, AVER’s first Transgender president. “This was a significant accomplishment for us, but we must remain ‘ever-vigilant’ for the return of such harmful legislation, especially in an election year where conservative law makers work to score political points from their base rather than serve the needs of our service members.”

AVER remains committed to Gender Confirmation Treatment, including surgeries and hormone treatment to transgender children, which are therapies approved by the American Pediatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the World Health Association.

Ever Vigilant

Penn Baker Veteran USN
505-281-2269
AVER National President
We must not stand by and watch another’s civil rights violated and do nothing,
lest we make it more likely our rights will be violated.