Trump admin slashes NIH research funding for LGBTQ health issues

The Trump administration has slashed more than $800 million in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for studies related to LGBTQ health.

Since early May, the NIH has canceled 669 grants either in full or in part, with at least 323 of those directly related to LGBTQ health issues, according to a report by The New York Times. Major institutions impacted include Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and numerous public universities across the South and Midwest.

Termination letters sent to researchers over the last two months cited a shift in agency priorities. Some explained that LGBTQ-related research “no longer effectuates agency priorities,” while others described studies as being based “primarily on artificial and nonscientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives.”

The funding cuts come after years of increased support for LGBTQ health research under prior administrations, especially following efforts under President Obama that encouraged NIH proposals targeting sexual and gender minority groups. The Trump administration has pushed back against that trend, claiming such research is driven by ideology rather than science.

“There’s been a train of abuses of the science to fit a preconceived conclusion,” explained Heritage Foundation’s Roger Sevrino, according to The New York Times. “And that was based on an unscientific premise that biology is effectively irrelevant, and a political project of trying to mainstream the notion that people could change their sex.”

One example of cut funding included research being done at Harvard University’s Medical School regarding the mental health of LGBTQ youth. Associate professor Brittany Charlton, who joined a federal lawsuit against the NIH for terminating grants, previously received funding that was “aimed at time-sensitive policy questions, to study the impact of discriminatory and supportive legislation on the mental health of LGBTQ young people.” 

According to the lawsuit, the funding was terminated by the NIH on March 12. The NIH informed Charlton that “Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs.”

In addition to the grant terminations, the Trump administration has proposed reducing the overall NIH budget from $48 billion to $27 billion. The president cited concerns over the agency’s promotion of “radical gender ideology.”

In a statement, the NIH said that it is “taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities. We remain dedicated to restoring our agency to its tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science."