After a flurry of research funding cuts and executive orders during the first months of the second Trump presidency, local LGBTQ health care providers are sounding the alarm over the rollbacks, which they say are threatening the next generation of researchers while potentially putting lives at risk.
An analysis by British science journal Nature parsed through National Institute of Health grant terminations during the first two and a half months of Trump's presidency, and found that nearly a third of grants cut were for research that mentioned HIV/AIDS, and just under a quarter were related to trans health.
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WATCH HERE"We are really seeing an unprecedented attack on the LGBTQ community and specifically LGBTQIA health and wellness," Executive Vice President of Donor Engagement and External Relations at Fenway Health Dallas Ducar said. "We're seeing research dollars being slashed, we're seeing support, federal support for health care being slashed as well."
Fenway Health is a Boston-based medical provider that has been on the forefront of LGBTQ health care for more than 50 years. Aside from providing health care to over 30,000 patients annually, the organization deploys public health initiatives and also conducts research under the Fenway Institute.
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SIGN UP Ducar said that their providers see patients from around 40 states, with an increasing number of out-of-staters seeking care through Fenway as gender-affirming care becomes less accessible in other regions of the country.
As of late May, Fenway had seen 17 different awards through the federal government cut, equating to a loss of around $2.6 million.
"That's not counting future funding opportunities as well, and so the hit to our bottom line has been substantial," Ducar said. "We have continued to look for other funding modalities because we don't believe that, the government right now, the federal government, will be a reliable source of funding for LGBTQ research or AIDS and HIV research."
Analyzing grant terminations across the board
NBC News reported in early April that up until that point, more than $125M in LGBTQ health funding had been axed by the Trump Administration overall, representing over 270 grants. The true total though, was likely much higher, according to researchers.
Last month, JAMA released an analysis that ranked which NIC centers were hit hardest.
“These cuts were not spread evenly,” Michael Liu, an author of the study and Harvard Medical School student told NBC News. “Namely, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities was hit the hardest. About 30% of all of its funding was cut. That’s 10 times more than the average.”
The exact numbers of grant cancellations can be difficult to pinpoint, given the massive amounts of money involved, frequent developments and legal challenges to the cuts. A briefing released on June 10 by the Association of American Medical Colleges totaled lost funding at $3.8 billion, with Massachusetts seeing the biggest loss, at more than $1.2 billion.
HHS restructuring and Administration for a Healthy America
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told NBC10 Boston that critical HIV/AIDS programs will continue under the Administration for a Healthy America, noting that it is a high priority for the department. The spokesperson said that investments align with the agency's work to to address both urgent and long-term health challenges.
The White House echoed this message in a response to NBC10 Boston.
HHS announced in March that it will undergo a "dramatic restructuring" as part of Trump's DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative. Under the restructuring plan, the 28 divisions of the HHS will be consolidated into 15, including the new Administration for a Healthy America.
The AHA is set to consolidate multiple agencies under HHS, which officials say will allow to improve coordination, particularly when it comes to streamlining resources for low-income Americans. The focus points of the AHA will include primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, HIV/AIDS, environmental health and workforce development.
The restructuring plan would cut around 10,000 full-time jobs and save taxpayers around $1.8 billion annually, according the agency, which said critical services would not be impacted.
Legal hurdles to funding cuts
The funding cuts to medical research have faced significant pushback from institutions and states, and are now facing growing legal hurdles that have the potential to reverse the rollbacks.
Last week, a federal judge in Boston said that NIH was unlawful in its canceling of over $1 billion in research grants because of their claimed ties to DEI-related topics.
U.S. District Judge William Young said he would be reinstating grants, calling the terminations "racial discrimination and dissemination against America's LGBTQ community." The case is still ongoing, and Young is set to review more claims.
HHS said that it stood by its decision to "end funding for research that prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes for the American people."
The agency added that it was "exploring all legal options, including filing an appeal and moving to stay the order."
On Tuesday, staff at the NIH were directed not to cancel more research projects, according to an internal memo sent from a senior official that was reviewed and reported by The New York Times. The Times suggested that the directive could be temporary and followed the recent legal challenges facing the agency's cuts.
Where do providers like Fenway turn for funding?
Ducar said that as federal money becomes less reliable, Fenway is turning to philanthropic and other private forms of funding in an effort to diversify their funding streams. She hopes that other providers continue to provide care to LGBTQ people, because otherwise, they may become overwhelmed.
Beyond funding, Ducar expressed concerns about access to gender affirming care due in light of executive orders that have been filed center around transgender issues.
"Day one, we saw an executive order that limited or attempted to limit the provision of gender affirming care for youth and for 18-year-olds, so it crept up to adults as well," Ducar said. "And that's really unprecedented, to be able to see an executive order like that that's really limiting the provision of life-saving health care."
Fenway's status as a federally qualified health center means that it could be subject to a wider umbrella of federal orders, although a lot of the implications from Trump's executive orders still remain unclear.
