NIH Revoked Millions Of Dollars For LGBTQ+ Research. One Doctor Is Speaking Out
After the National Institutes of Health terminated grants for multiple studies involving LGBTQ+ health issues, one researcher is warning about the dangers of shutting down their work.
From education to healthcare, to military service, there’s hardly a sector where President Trump hasn’t decimated LGBTQ+ rights and resources. In a recent targeted attack, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated millions of dollars in research grants, including funding for several studies related to LGBTQ+ healthcare, gender identity, and DEI.
Among the researchers losing funding was Dr. Brittany Charlton, an epidemiologist and associate professor at Harvard whose research involves LGBTQ+ healthcare. All of Charlton’s active studies were stripped of their NIH funding entirely, even though her initial grants stipulated she’d have several years and millions of dollars left to complete them. One of Charlton’s studies tracked obstetrical outcomes for queer women, while another investigated how discriminatory laws impact the mental health of LGBTQ+ teens.
Charlton wasn’t the only researcher affected. Earlier this month, ABC News reported that NIH had already terminated at least 24 studies related to LGBTQ+ issues, including multiple studies about Alzheimer’s and dementia in LGBTQ+ elders. On March 5, a federal judge sent a nationwide order blocking the NIH from revoking any more active research grants to studies that could cause “catastrophic harm” to American medical treatments if halted. However, this did not restore funding to previously terminated studies.
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Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Charlton said, “NIH grants undergo a highly competitive review process, and terminations are extremely rare. This decision seems to be based solely on the perceived conflict with the recent executive order related to ‘gender ideology,’ rather than our work’s merit or scientific rigor.”
Indeed, the termination of these research grants is the latest in a long series of the Trump administration’s attacks on “gender ideology,” its term for virtually anything related to the LGBTQ+ community. Most recently, the administration paused or altogether cut millions of dollars in funding to universities nationwide, many for supposed violations of Trump’s transgender sports ban. The administration has also moved to eradicate transgender troops from military service, and to strip gender-affirming healthcare from the VA’s offerings.
In its termination letters to impacted scientists, the NIH said the projects losing funding “do not serve the priorities” of the Trump administration. According to ABC News, other termination letters take an even more explicit stance, claiming that “research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific” and that these studies “ignore biological realities,” and “do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans.” As a result, the letters state, “It is the policy of the NIH not to prioritize these research programs.” Further, an anonymous NIH official told ABC that the Trump administration had asked NIH to review grants and “ensure they do not contain any DEI research activities.”
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Responding to her loss of funding, Charlton told ABC, “This termination has broader implications, not just for the LGBTQ community but for all Americans. It sets a concerning precedent where scientific inquiry is stifled by political rhetoric, potentially erasing entire communities from research agendas.”
