The Trump administration has gutted over $125 million in funding dedicated to LGBTQ health research, sending shockwaves through the scientific community and triggering widespread layoffs. The sudden cancellations — impacting more than 270 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants — have effectively dismantled much of the infrastructure supporting studies on HIV, STIs, and mental health in LGBTQ populations.
Researchers are calling it a bloodbath. “This has been a devastating experience,” said Brian Mustanski, a pioneer in the field and director of Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. His team, once a powerhouse in collecting data on gay and trans health, now faces collapse. Half of his 120-person staff were funded by grants that have now vanished. “There’s an incredible lack of transparency behind this process and who’s behind it,” he said.
Cutting the Lifeline for Trans and Gay Health
The cuts appear to follow a broader conservative agenda. Executive orders signed by President Trump have prioritized the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. NIH’s new director, Jay Bhattacharya, confirmed the agency’s new direction: moving away from “politicized” research in favor of traditional chronic conditions. But HIV — which disproportionately affects gay and trans individuals — wasn’t even mentioned in his statements.
These canceled grants weren’t frivolous side projects. They included long-running, landmark studies with proven success, like trials demonstrating how a common antibiotic could significantly reduce STI rates among gay men and trans women. Those follow-up studies are now toast.
Programs within the CDC also took a hit, including the surveillance systems tracking HIV trends among gay men, and labs focused on STI resistance testing. Meanwhile, researchers now fear LGBTQ people may be scrubbed entirely from future national health surveys.
LGBTQ Health on the Brink
“This is what authoritarianism looks like. Fear keeps people silent,” said Dr. Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School, who lost all her NIH funding for HIV prevention studies. Her chilling statement underscores a growing sense of déjà vu among those who lived through the AIDS crisis. Back then, it was silence that killed. Today, it may be the deliberate removal of support and data.
What’s particularly galling is that many of the canceled studies weren’t even focused solely on gender identity — the conservative hot-button — but on broader LGBTQ health, including mental health impacts of COVID, HIV prevention among Black gay men, and even chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. Ironically, the administration’s push to “focus on real health issues” has led to defunding research on precisely those issues — simply because the participants happen to be queer.
“This is what authoritarianism looks like.
Fear keeps people silent.”JULIA MARCUS, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
A Dangerous Setback for LGBTQ Lives
The erasure of LGBTQ data is no small matter. Without it, public health policies become guesswork. Courts lose crucial evidence for legal decisions. And the next generation of LGBTQ scientists may never get the chance to enter the field. “We are about to lose knowledge… that has been essential for understanding policy,” warned Ilan Meyer of UCLA.
This isn’t just academic. It’s about people’s lives. Trans women, gay teens, queer people of color — the very populations these studies aimed to protect — are once again being sidelined. And while private donors may try to plug the holes, the scale of the loss is staggering. The defunding of the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network alone killed $70 million in research aimed at protecting queer youth from HIV.
As with so many moments in queer history, this is a turning point. The question now is whether America will watch LGBTQ health fall off the map — or fight like hell to keep it on the agenda.
Or, as one ACT-UP protester once put it: “Silence = Death.” Today, that warning feels as urgent as ever.