The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System transgender clinic opens its doors today. That VA hospital will become the fourth in the nation to offer special clinic hours for transgender patients.

The Tucson treatment team will be headed by Dr. Sonia Perez-Padilla, who says the Tucson hospital is now recognized by the VA as a "national center of excellence for transgender care."

Local VA officials say the population of transgender veterans in Tucson has grown from 50 to 130 in the past five years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered all its medical facility to take better care of transgender veterans beginning in 2011.

Before that, discrimination was not uncommon.

--Dr. Perez-Padilla