Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health
questions
[March 25, 2025]
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
A surge of grant cancellations hit researchers focused on the health of
gay, lesbian and transgender people last week, as the Trump
administration continues to target what it describes as ideologically
driven science.
Last week the U.S. government terminated at least 68 grants to 46
institutions totaling nearly $40 million when awarded, according to a
government website. Some of the grant money has already been spent, but
at least $1.36 million in future support was yanked as a result of the
cuts, a significant undercount because estimates were available for less
than a third of grants.
Most were in some way related to sexual minorities, including research
focused on HIV prevention. Other canceled studies centered on cancer,
youth suicide and bone health.
Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said the agency is
“dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding
gold-standard, evidence-based science." The grants were awarded by the
National Institutes of Health, an agency under HHS.
One canceled project at Vanderbilt University had been following the
overall health of more than 1,200 LGBTQ people age 50 and older. Most of
the money has been spent from the grant funding the project, but it was
up for renewal in April, said Tara McKay, who leads Vanderbilt's LGBTQ+
Policy Lab.
She said the grant won’t be renewed because of the termination, which
jeopardizes any long-term results. Still, the Vanderbilt project had
already generated two dozen published papers, including work used to
train doctors to provide better care to LGBTQ people, increasing the
likelihood of cancer screenings and other preventive care.
“That saves us a lot of money in health care and saves lives,” McKay
said.
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The National Institutes of Health's James Shannon building is seen
on the agency's campus in Bethesda, Md., Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. (AP
Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Insights from minority populations can increase knowledge that affects
everyone, said Simon Rosser, who studies cancer in gay and bisexual men
at the University of Minnesota.
“We now no longer have anywhere studying LGBT cancer in the United
States,” said Rosser, who saw his grants canceled on Friday.
“When you decide to cancel all the grants on sexual minorities, you
really slow down scientific discovery, for everyone,” Rosser said. Young
researchers will lose their jobs, and the field as a whole will suffer,
he added.
“It’s a loss of a whole generation of science,” Rosser said.
Termination letters seen by The Associated Press gave as reasons that
the research was “unscientific” or did “nothing to enhance the health of
many Americans.”
That language felt personal and stinging, McKay said.
“My project’s been accused of having no benefit to the American people.
And, you know, queer and trans folks are Americans also," McKay said.
___
Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this
report. ___
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