Trump administration axes more than $125M in LGBTQ health funding, upending research field
The National Institutes of Health has canceled more than 270 grants focused on LGBTQ health in recent weeks.
The nation’s LGBTQ research field is collapsing.
In recent weeks, academics who focus on improving the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans have been subjected to waves of grant cancellations from the National Institutes of Health. More than 270 grants totaling at least $125 million of unspent funds have been eliminated, though the true sum is likely much greater, researchers told NBC News.
Cancellation letters obtained by NBC News often vaguely state that the research in question no longer suits NIH priorities. Some allude to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, including one that effectively bars recognition of transgender identities and another forbidding diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives. Other LGBTQ-focused grants have been swept up in the Trump administration’s broadsides against Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. Academics fear more cancellations as the administration targets Harvard University.
Hundreds of researchers, many of them panicked, have watched as the system that supports their life’s work — to address the myriad health disparities faced by sexual and gender minorities — has been upended. Many of them suddenly face potential unemployment and a job market rendered bleak by the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize funding for academic research.
A medical student displays a she/her pronoun pin and a rainbow pin resembling the Harvard School of Medicine coat of arms lion.Steven Senne / APOn Tuesday, mass layoffs across the Department of Health and Human Services included the gutting of programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that surveil the HIV epidemic among gay men in particular, according to a CDC official who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. The Trump administration also eliminated a lab that conducts specialized testing of and assessment for drug resistance among bacterial sexually transmitted infections, including syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia, which are especially prevalent in gay men, according to another CDC official who similarly asked to remain anonymous.
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