In a controversial move, the Missouri Republicans-led state administration has initiated the removal of crucial resources for queer youth from its health department website. This decision comes at a time when GOP legislators in the state are poised to pass some of the most stringent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, as reported by The Kansas City Star.
Political Pressures Lead to Removal
Earlier this year, Lisa Cox, spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, instructed the agency’s website team to delete links from its teen and adolescent health information page, located in the “Healthy Families” section of the website. This section previously provided essential healthcare resources for teenagers, their parents, teachers, and medical professionals.
Emails obtained by The Star reveal that the purged resources were associated with Missouri sexual health providers, LGBTQ+ youth organizations, and other groups offering information on sexual health. Within a mere 15 minutes of Cox’s directive, an information specialist at the Office of Administration confirmed that the resources were no longer accessible to the public.
Controversial Content and Scrutiny
The decision to remove these resources appears to have been influenced by external and internal political pressures. An anonymous former employee of the agency disclosed, “There was a lot of political pressure given the content of teen pregnancy prevention, and just anything around LGBTQ health and wellness faced a lot of pressure to be censored.” This employee highlighted the persistent challenges faced in maintaining LGBTQ+ resources within the department.
While auditing its website, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services identified hundreds of external resource links. Some links led to inactive pages, while others were deemed inappropriate for the health department’s platform. According to Cox, “A couple of the links you referenced below were advocacy groups with a fundraising mechanism built into their homepage. Some included political content.” Among the resources deemed “controversial” were Gender Spectrum, Trans Student Educational Resources, and GLESN, all organizations providing crucial support and information for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Lawmaker Responses
The removal of these resources has sparked criticism from some lawmakers. State Senator Lauren Arthur, a Democrat, expressed her concerns, saying, “Missourians need access to medically accurate information to make healthy decisions. DHSS scrubbed these links not because the information was deemed inaccurate — but because they thought it might offend certain elected officials who want to impose their beliefs on others.”
This move in Missouri mirrors similar actions in other states. Recently, a conservative media outlet questioned links to LGBTQ+ youth resources on a Virginia state website, leading to the mass deletion of resources for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2021, Texas faced accusations of removing LGBTQ+ resources for youth, including a suicide hotline for queer youth.
As Missouri’s removal of LGBTQ+ resources continues to draw attention and debate, it underscores the ongoing battle for LGBTQ+ rights and access to information in a challenging political landscape.