Women veterans share brutal struggle in Houston march

Navy veteran B.K. Silva listens to speakers during women veterans rally at city hall on Saturday, June 9, 2018 in Houston. The veterans marched to celebrate progress and speak out for against abuse and challenges they face. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle) less Navy veteran B.K. Silva listens to speakers during women veterans rally at city hall on Saturday, June 9, 2018 in Houston. The veterans marched to celebrate progress and speak out for against abuse and ... more Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Women veterans share brutal struggle in Houston march 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Army veteran BreAnn McLaughlin, 31, marched to Houston City Hall on Saturday morning carrying a poster with a blunt declaration.

“I was raped. I survived. I have PTSD.”

Despite diagnosing her with post-traumatic stress disorder, the Department of Veterans Affairs denied her benefits claim, she said. The VA attributes her struggles not to the assault while on active duty, but instead to being an overwhelmed mother.

“When have men ever had to prove they suffer with their trauma?” her sign questioned.

Army veteran Claudiah Billiot marched too. Her sister, who also was in the Army, died from an explosion while serving in Iraq. Billiot, 33, suffered post-traumatic stress after witnessing her sister’s horrific burns, and from sexual harassment she endured while serving. She avoided seeking health services from the VA for 11 years, having heard horror stories about its male-dominated culture.

When she finally did seek help, she got a referral to a support group. It was all male.

Army veteran Heather Poole, 30, helped organize Saturday’s march. She served surreptitiously as a combat medic in Afghanistan, before women were allowed in combat roles in 2016. She comes from a military family, including her mother, who went through the Army’s grueling air assault school. Yet at the VA, she’s often asked about her husband’s service. She doesn’t have a husband.

Tuesday is Women Veterans Day in Texas, a designation established only one year ago. There is no national equivalent. It has been 70 years since President Harry Truman signed the law enabling women to serve as permanent, regular members of the armed services.

The rally on Saturday - thought by its organizers to be the first of its kind in Houston and Texas - grew out of the Houston Women’s March and the #MeToo movement. It attracted only a few dozen marchers, but they represent a growing contingent that is tired of feeling invisible.

Like their male counterparts, they face obstacles accessing housing, employment, health care and counseling. A 2014 report by Disabled American Veterans identified gaps in programs that serve women veterans, including health care, employment, finance, housing, and social issues. They seek services in a system that originally was designed for men, and that is ill-equipped to deal with problems such as rape, which military women encounter at far higher rates than men.

Thousands of servicewomen experienced a sexual assault in one year studied by the Rand Corporation, and their risk of such assaults is five times higher than men, the study found. Reports of rape in the military reached record highs in 2017, just as the nation began a reckoning with the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment of women in virtually every facet of society.

More Information Services for women veterans Veterans Crisis Line 1-800-273- 8255 Texas Veterans Commission https://www.tvc.texas.gov/women-veterans/ The American Legion https://www.legion.org/veteransbenefits/womenveterans Women Veterans Alliance http://www.womenveteransalliance.org/ VA Women Veterans Healthcare https://www.womenshealth.va.gov/

Even in a state as important to the military as Texas, which has the largest population of women veterans, they are often overlooked, underserved and misunderstood, even by the VA that promises to do as much, the Houston marchers said.

Women are the fastest growing demographic of U.S. veterans. There are nearly 1.6 million, a figure expected to nearly double by 2035. Yet the VA has been slow to change, advocates say, even as problems such as suicide among female veterans are increasing faster than among men.

Nearly a third of VA medical centers and health systems lack an on-site gynecologist, according to a 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office. The VA doesn't monitor performance measures specifically for women's services under the Veterans Choice Program, the primary option for veterans to receive care from non-VA providers, according to the GAO report. The GAO found cases where maternity care was significantly delayed. In one instance, it took a woman nearly three months to get her initial prenatal appointment; she was already 18 weeks pregnant.

No on-site obstetrical care is provided, so women have to see non-VA providers.

That’s why, McLaughlin says, she was rebuffed at a VA clinic outside of Houston. She’d begun have symptoms of a miscarriage at work, and her sister drove her to the clinic. She waited the better part of an hour and was finally told the clinic didn’t have the means to respond to a miscarriage; she’d have to drive downtown, a 45-minute trip, in pain. She finally went to a nearby non-VA clinic. She’s still negotiating that claim.

McLaughlin received the denial of benefits for PTSD treatment, she said, on the anniversary of her assault. The VA did not immediately respond to the Houston Chronicle’s inquiries on Saturday.

McLaughlin is dealing with all of this while taking care of three children on her own. Sometimes, when they come in for a hug, she recoils. She doesn’t do well with physical contact anymore.

She has nightmares that her rapist is coming back for her kids.

“These are children who deserve to have a mother who is not a broken person,” she said at the steps of City Hall.

Fellow marchers surrounded her in an embrace.

“I have done nothing but speak out,” McLaughlin said. “I have never been validated.”

As she spoke of her children, she choked up, but no tears came.

“I’m done crying,” she said. “I’m mad.”

mark.collette@chron.com

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SERVICES FOR WOMEN VETERANS

Veterans Crisis Line: 800-273-8255

Women Veterans Health Care at the VA

Women Veterans at the American Legion

Women Veterans Alliance

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a statistic about the lack of on-site gynecologists at VA centers. The source was a 2016 GAO report. The story also was updated to clarify that a lack of performance monitoring for women's services applied to the Veterans Choice Program, and that information about obstacles faced by women veterans came from a report by Disabled American Veterans.