Bay Pines VAHCS to Hold Special Event for LGBT Pride Month

Events, General News

The Bay Pines VA Healthcare System (VAHCS) will hold a special event to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month on Thursday, June 15. The event will take place in the JC Cobb room located on the first floor of the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center (building 100). Doors will open at 11:00 a.m. and the formal program will start at 12:00 p.m.

The celebration theme is, “Viva La Vida! Live the Life!” Local businesses will be onsite to share services offered to the LGBT community. Information on healthcare services and benefits offered to the LGBT Veteran will also be available. Veterans, their families and friends, VA staff and volunteers, and other members of the community are invited and encouraged to attend.

“Our LGBT celebration is one of our monthly special emphasis programs focused on diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity,” said Tonya Wieck, Equal Opportunity Program Manager, Bay Pines VAHCS.

“We take pride in serving all Veterans and strive to be a national leader in the provision of health care to LGBT Veterans while assuring care is provided in a sensitive, safe environment in all of our facilities,” she said.

In March, the Bay Pines VAHCS was designated as a “Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality” for the fifth straight year by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization. The designation was reported in the 10th edition of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), reflecting on a decade of progress in LGBTQ healthcare. A record 590 healthcare facilities actively participated in the HEI 2017 survey. Of those facilities, 45 were VA medical centers. Read more about the Bay Pines VAHCS’s HEI achievement here: www.baypines.va.gov/pressreleases/20170329.asp

To learn more about the Bay Pines VAHCS’s LGBT Pride Month celebration, please call 727-398-6661, extension 15086.

NOTE: This event is open for media coverage. For advanced information, please contact Jason Dangel, Public Affairs Officer, at 727-398-9531 or email vhabaypublicaffairs@va.gov.

About Jeff Cavanagh

Jeff Cavanagh spent his freshman year at St. Petersburg Junior College back in the early 70s before enlisting in the United States Navy. Soon after, he attended Jacksonville University on a Navy ROTC scholarship. After college, he was commissioned and became a qualified Surface Warfare Officer spending the next 22 years honing his skills as a ship-handler and expert recruiter before retiring in 1994. Jeff expresses a deep sense of pride in St. Petersburg College due to connections that go back many years. His father, Tom Cavanagh, was a career Air Force fighter pilot and combat veteran who taught Geography and Western Civilization at St. Petersburg Junior College in the 60’s and 70’s.