Latest news with #FenwayHealth
CNN
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Pride Month marches on, despite frustration and worry from LGBTQ community over government actions
Pride Month is designed to bring attention to the LGBTQ community in the United States, and this year's events included the same parades, music, laughter and rainbow-colored displays of every kind across the nation. But Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling on gender-affirming care for transgender youth was the kind of attention many advocates didn't want and the capper to a month of discouragement. 'The decision itself does land like a punch in the gut during Pride Month, a time that's meant to celebrate liberation, joy and survival,' said Dallas Ducar, executive vice president of the Boston-based trans health provider Fenway Health. 'It showcases that while our resilience is not any weaker, the attacks are calculated.' The high court decision upholding Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors may grease the wheels for court approval of similar laws already enacted in two dozen other states. And it comes with concern for a community used to a summer of celebration. The annual event – marking the anniversary month of the Stonewall riots, which are considered the birth of the US gay rights movement – is now the backdrop for a wave of government actions and cultural backlash that has many LGBTQ advocates and the people affected concerned. From historic sites losing ties to LGBTQ roots and Pride performances being canceled at the Kennedy Center to adverse changes playing out in both courtrooms and social media accounts, many advocates say they're winded, but ready to continue the battle. 'Pride was made for moments like this,' said Ducar, referring to the Supreme Court decision on the Tennessee transgender care ban. 'Decisions like Skrmetti remind us of why we marched in the first place and why we still must.' As Pride enters its home stretch, here are some of the government actions taken this month that LGBTQ advocates say have taken the country backward. 'I am deeply afraid for what this decision will unleash — politically and socially,' Samantha Williams, mother of a transgender student who was one of the plaintiffs in the Tennessee case, wrote in a New York Times op-ed. 'Now that the Supreme Court has denied the rights of young people like my daughter and families like ours, what's next?' The actions affecting trans children this month go beyond the Supreme Court ruling, seeding worry for families and those in the community. Continuing his battle to ban transgender women from competing in women's athletics, President Donald Trump put California directly in his sights after the success of a teenage transgender track and field athlete. Trump said on social media 'large scale fines will be imposed' as a result, after previously threatening to withhold federal funding from the state. The ability to compete in athletics in accordance with their gender identity is protected under a state law that was passed more than a decade ago. Although Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed his own misgivings about transgender athletes, there is no sign California officials intend to change it. US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called the law unconstitutional, adding, 'you have an obligation to comply with the Equal Protection Clause,' she wrote in a June 2 letter to more than 1,600 California public schools. So far, the federal government has not taken the threatened action, and most California schools are on summer break. The Department of Health and Human Services is dropping the specialized support for LGBTQ youth on the government-funded 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline next month. 'Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,' the government said in a statement, but a program to connect LGBTQ callers with specially trained counselors is being dropped despite getting more than a million calls since it started in July 2022. A 2024 study associated with The Trevor Project – a crisis intervention organization focused on LGBTQ young people – found suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary teenagers increased in the wake of restrictive laws passed by states. The group also said nearly 40% of LGBTQ youth surveyed in 2023 seriously considered suicide in the past year. Pride – an unapologetically boisterous event – has been met by virtual silence from the White House. 'There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on June 3. But the Department of Education announced its own plan to recognize June as 'Title IX Month,' referencing the law that protects women and girls against discrimination in education. The Trump administration has cited that law as justification for its efforts to keep transgender women from participating in women's sports. It's not a dramatic course change for Trump, who never issued an official proclamation acknowledging Pride during his first term, though he did mention it in a 2019 tweet. Since then, the administration has shortened the abbreviation to 'LGB' or 'LGB+' in government documents and websites, including for the Stonewall National Monument in New York, removing the signifier for transgender people, an affront to now-legendary transgender activists who rioted there. While conservative gay advocates like the Log Cabin Republicans – the largest GOP group 'dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies' – have argued the nose-thumbing at Pride is really a swipe at progressive politics, it has been accompanied by a large change in GOP opinion on gay rights. The percentage of Republicans who say gay and lesbian relationships are 'morally acceptable' has plummeted in the past three years, now down to 38%, according to Gallup polls. Since taking over leadership of the Kennedy Center – the preeminent public performance venue in the nation's capital – President Trump has remolded its leadership, leading to event cancellations. 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA,' the president wrote on social media. The Center canceled a Pride performance involving the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC. Soon after, a week of events at the Kennedy Center tied to the World Pride festival were canceled or moved to other venues, the Associated Press reported. 'We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing,' June Crenshaw, deputy director of the Capital Pride Alliance, told the AP. Trump appointed Richard Grenell, who serves in multiple administration positions, as interim director of the Kennedy Center. Grenell, who is gay, in an interview with Politico last week expressed embarrassment with many Pride activities. 'You go to a Pride parade and it's embarrassing! It's real fringe and it's too sexual. And I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves,' he said. 'By the way, this (opinion) is extremely popular with normal gays.' Trump allies also point out he nominated the highest-ranking gay public official in the country's history, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. But that unfailing support is not representative of the community, as a CNN exit poll found more than four in five LGBTQ voters cast ballots for Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. As he has every year in June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a former GOP presidential candidate – ordered flags at half-staff this month to remember the victims of the shooting at Orlando's Pulse Nightclub, a gay club where 49 people were killed in 2016. The cut-and-paste proclamation was virtually identical to past statements, but with one major exception: it cut a section noting 'the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities' had been targeted. A similar omission was made by DeSantis' office in 2019. At the time, the governor said the slight was unintentional and amended it on social media. This year when the absence was noted, no change was made, and no explanation was given. The governor's office did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the change. The Log Cabin Republicans made no comment about the absence of LGBTQ acknowledgement in the former Republican presidential candidate's statement. Instead, the group published an op-ed from senior adviser Dylan Schwartz focusing on left-wing support for Palestinian causes. In fact, there is little sign of organized backlash against the administration among gay members of the MAGA movement. The Log Cabin Republicans went from refusing to endorse Trump in the 2016 general election to now fervently backing his policies and praising what they call 'normal gays.' 'Trump is not 'targeting' our community,' Log Cabin interim executive director Ed Williams wrote in March. 'He's leading a massive course correction to reverse the radical and insane excesses that extremist, gender-obsessed elements of the Left have quietly and quickly imposed upon our government and our country, yielding no results while fostering more division.' At the beginning of Pride Month, the Trump administration took a step that surprised many in the LGBTQ community – it ordered the Navy to rename a fuel supply ship named for gay rights advocate Harvey Milk, a defense official told CNN. Milk, a member of the San Francisco city governing board who was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, was also a Navy veteran who was forced to resign because of questions about his sexual orientation. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – who represents the district where Milk lived – called the decision a 'spiteful move.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said plans were being discussed to change the names of all John Lewis-class ships, which are named after civil rights icons, and not the USNS Harvey Milk alone. 'We're not interested in naming ships after activists,' Hegseth said at a June 11 congressional hearing. 'It's just so petty and mean-spirited,' Kevin Jennings, CEO of LGBTQ legal advocacy organization Lambda Legal, said of the ship renaming news. 'Our community – both individually and collectively – a lot of us have had to deal with bullies our whole life.' If insulting Pride was intended to discourage progressive groups focused on gay rights, there are signs it may have done the opposite. Lamba Legal – the group that organized the legal case against the Tennessee law and dozens of others – started a drive to raise $180 million. So far, it has surpassed its goal by more than $100 million. 'Think people realize that our last line of defense is the courts,' Jennings told CNN. 'I think there are clearly judges who are ideologues, but I think most judges actually respect and value the rule of law.' While more than 30 years have passed between the Stonewall riots and the Supreme Court ruling that struck down state laws criminalizing same-sex relations, Jennings said the spirit of the Pride movement to patiently and persistently fight is not going away. 'We are going to persist until we prevail. If it takes 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years, we are not going to quit,' he said.
CNN
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Pride Month marches on, despite frustration and worry from LGBTQ community over government actions
Pride Month is designed to bring attention to the LGBTQ community in the United States, and this year's events included the same parades, music, laughter and rainbow-colored displays of every kind across the nation. But Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling on gender-affirming care for transgender youth was the kind of attention many advocates didn't want and the capper to a month of discouragement. 'The decision itself does land like a punch in the gut during Pride Month, a time that's meant to celebrate liberation, joy and survival,' said Dallas Ducar, executive vice president of the Boston-based trans health provider Fenway Health. 'It showcases that while our resilience is not any weaker, the attacks are calculated.' The high court decision upholding Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors may grease the wheels for court approval of similar laws already enacted in two dozen other states. And it comes with concern for a community used to a summer of celebration. The annual event – marking the anniversary month of the Stonewall riots, which are considered the birth of the US gay rights movement – is now the backdrop for a wave of government actions and cultural backlash that has many LGBTQ advocates and the people affected concerned. From historic sites losing ties to LGBTQ roots and Pride performances being canceled at the Kennedy Center to adverse changes playing out in both courtrooms and social media accounts, many advocates say they're winded, but ready to continue the battle. 'Pride was made for moments like this,' said Ducar, referring to the Supreme Court decision on the Tennessee transgender care ban. 'Decisions like Skrmetti remind us of why we marched in the first place and why we still must.' As Pride enters its home stretch, here are some of the government actions taken this month that LGBTQ advocates say have taken the country backward. 'I am deeply afraid for what this decision will unleash — politically and socially,' Samantha Williams, mother of a transgender student who was one of the plaintiffs in the Tennessee case, wrote in a New York Times op-ed. 'Now that the Supreme Court has denied the rights of young people like my daughter and families like ours, what's next?' The actions affecting trans children this month go beyond the Supreme Court ruling, seeding worry for families and those in the community. Continuing his battle to ban transgender women from competing in women's athletics, President Donald Trump put California directly in his sights after the success of a teenage transgender track and field athlete. Trump said on social media 'large scale fines will be imposed' as a result, after previously threatening to withhold federal funding from the state. The ability to compete in athletics in accordance with their gender identity is protected under a state law that was passed more than a decade ago. Although Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed his own misgivings about transgender athletes, there is no sign California officials intend to change it. US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called the law unconstitutional, adding, 'you have an obligation to comply with the Equal Protection Clause,' she wrote in a June 2 letter to more than 1,600 California public schools. So far, the federal government has not taken the threatened action, and most California schools are on summer break. The Department of Health and Human Services is dropping the specialized support for LGBTQ youth on the government-funded 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline next month. 'Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,' the government said in a statement, but a program to connect LGBTQ callers with specially trained counselors is being dropped despite getting more than a million calls since it started in July 2022. A 2024 study associated with The Trevor Project – a crisis intervention organization focused on LGBTQ young people – found suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary teenagers increased in the wake of restrictive laws passed by states. The group also said nearly 40% of LGBTQ youth surveyed in 2023 seriously considered suicide in the past year. Pride – an unapologetically boisterous event – has been met by virtual silence from the White House. 'There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on June 3. But the Department of Education announced its own plan to recognize June as 'Title IX Month,' referencing the law that protects women and girls against discrimination in education. The Trump administration has cited that law as justification for its efforts to keep transgender women from participating in women's sports. It's not a dramatic course change for Trump, who never issued an official proclamation acknowledging Pride during his first term, though he did mention it in a 2019 tweet. Since then, the administration has shortened the abbreviation to 'LGB' or 'LGB+' in government documents and websites, including for the Stonewall National Monument in New York, removing the signifier for transgender people, an affront to now-legendary transgender activists who rioted there. While conservative gay advocates like the Log Cabin Republicans – the largest GOP group 'dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies' – have argued the nose-thumbing at Pride is really a swipe at progressive politics, it has been accompanied by a large change in GOP opinion on gay rights. The percentage of Republicans who say gay and lesbian relationships are 'morally acceptable' has plummeted in the past three years, now down to 38%, according to Gallup polls. Since taking over leadership of the Kennedy Center – the preeminent public performance venue in the nation's capital – President Trump has remolded its leadership, leading to event cancellations. 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA,' the president wrote on social media. The Center canceled a Pride performance involving the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC. Soon after, a week of events at the Kennedy Center tied to the World Pride festival were canceled or moved to other venues, the Associated Press reported. 'We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing,' June Crenshaw, deputy director of the Capital Pride Alliance, told the AP. Trump appointed Richard Grenell, who serves in multiple administration positions, as interim director of the Kennedy Center. Grenell, who is gay, in an interview with Politico last week expressed embarrassment with many Pride activities. 'You go to a Pride parade and it's embarrassing! It's real fringe and it's too sexual. And I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves,' he said. 'By the way, this (opinion) is extremely popular with normal gays.' Trump allies also point out he nominated the highest-ranking gay public official in the country's history, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. But that unfailing support is not representative of the community, as a CNN exit poll found more than four in five LGBTQ voters cast ballots for Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. As he has every year in June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a former GOP presidential candidate – ordered flags at half-staff this month to remember the victims of the shooting at Orlando's Pulse Nightclub, a gay club where 49 people were killed in 2016. The cut-and-paste proclamation was virtually identical to past statements, but with one major exception: it cut a section noting 'the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities' had been targeted. A similar omission was made by DeSantis' office in 2019. At the time, the governor said the slight was unintentional and amended it on social media. This year when the absence was noted, no change was made, and no explanation was given. The governor's office did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the change. The Log Cabin Republicans made no comment about the absence of LGBTQ acknowledgement in the former Republican presidential candidate's statement. Instead, the group published an op-ed from senior adviser Dylan Schwartz focusing on left-wing support for Palestinian causes. In fact, there is little sign of organized backlash against the administration among gay members of the MAGA movement. The Log Cabin Republicans went from refusing to endorse Trump in the 2016 general election to now fervently backing his policies and praising what they call 'normal gays.' 'Trump is not 'targeting' our community,' Log Cabin interim executive director Ed Williams wrote in March. 'He's leading a massive course correction to reverse the radical and insane excesses that extremist, gender-obsessed elements of the Left have quietly and quickly imposed upon our government and our country, yielding no results while fostering more division.' At the beginning of Pride Month, the Trump administration took a step that surprised many in the LGBTQ community – it ordered the Navy to rename a fuel supply ship named for gay rights advocate Harvey Milk, a defense official told CNN. Milk, a member of the San Francisco city governing board who was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, was also a Navy veteran who was forced to resign because of questions about his sexual orientation. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – who represents the district where Milk lived – called the decision a 'spiteful move.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said plans were being discussed to change the names of all John Lewis-class ships, which are named after civil rights icons, and not the USNS Harvey Milk alone. 'We're not interested in naming ships after activists,' Hegseth said at a June 11 congressional hearing. 'It's just so petty and mean-spirited,' Kevin Jennings, CEO of LGBTQ legal advocacy organization Lambda Legal, said of the ship renaming news. 'Our community – both individually and collectively – a lot of us have had to deal with bullies our whole life.' If insulting Pride was intended to discourage progressive groups focused on gay rights, there are signs it may have done the opposite. Lamba Legal – the group that organized the legal case against the Tennessee law and dozens of others – started a drive to raise $180 million. So far, it has surpassed its goal by more than $100 million. 'Think people realize that our last line of defense is the courts,' Jennings told CNN. 'I think there are clearly judges who are ideologues, but I think most judges actually respect and value the rule of law.' While more than 30 years have passed between the Stonewall riots and the Supreme Court ruling that struck down state laws criminalizing same-sex relations, Jennings said the spirit of the Pride movement to patiently and persistently fight is not going away. 'We are going to persist until we prevail. If it takes 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years, we are not going to quit,' he said.
Boston Globe
26-03-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Mass. to lose $100 million in federal public health funds
New Hampshire officials did not respond to a request for information about how the cuts affected that state. The losses are the result of the Trump administration's decision to pull back more than $11 billion in The news comes just days after the National Institutes of Health terminated tens of millions in health research grants nationally. On Friday Fenway Health, one of the state's community health centers, lost five grants supporting research into infectious diseases in the gay and lesbian community. Advertisement 'It's really been not a good week,' said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, medical research director at Fenway in an interview Wednesday afternoon. 'It's kind of an assault on public health in many ways.' In Massachusetts, the grant money supported treatment and testing for respiratory diseases, such as bird flu, programs to improve vaccine uptake, and support for community health centers, according to a statement from Governor Maura Healey. 'Massachusetts depends on this funding,' Healey said. 'Donald Trump was elected and promised to make life cheaper, healthier, and easier for people, but he's taking us backwards on all of those fronts.' In the same statement, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll said the state does not have the resources to replace all the CDC funding lost. Rhode Island officials said their grants also supported work to address health disparities. The Advertisement 'We are working very closely with the Governor's Office and the Rhode Island Attorney General to explore all options to safeguard the funding that supports the critical work done by the Department of Health,' Wendelken wrote. Related : On Tuesday, federal health officials said they would cut billions in COVID-related funding and that the CDC had begun sending out the termination notices to local and state health departments on Monday, according to the 'The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,' the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. 'The state is going to have to make a decision,' Neronha said. 'Either we're going to continue doing this work at the state's expense, or not do it at all.' Christopher Gavin and Alexa Gagosz of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Jason Laughlin can be reached at
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Advocates looking for 'actual strategy' for Bay State LGBTQ+ community
BOSTON (SHNS) – Advocates, health care professionals and lawmakers raised alarm Wednesday at federal rhetoric and actions aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, which they say will increasingly harm LGBTQ+ people and could upend their access to gender-affirming care. 'We're witnessing relentless attacks on trans lives, on bodily autonomy and the very existence of LGBTQ individuals. Hard-fought gains and health equity are at risk with successful government programs that save lives being threatened right now and being defunded,' Dallas Ducar, executive vice president of donor engagement and external relations at Fenway Health, said Tuesday at a briefing highlighting National LGBTQ+ Health Awareness Week. 'These aren't just policy debates. These are decisions that will determine whether people live or whether they die,' Ducar said. Fenway Health is a federally-qualified health center. Of its 33,000 patients, half are LGBTQ, according to Ducar, who said the center is specifically worried about its research and education efforts, public health programs and system of gender-affirming care. The federal government has taken action during the first months of President Donald Trump's second term to change LGBTQ-related policy in the United States, moving to roll back numerous policies that protect people from discrimination based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, ensure access to gender-inclusive care, and differentiate between 'gender identity' and 'sex' in the federal government. Trump has said his orders are meant to defeat 'gender ideology.' Brittany Charlton, founding director of Harvard University's LGBTQ Health Center for Excellence, tied impacts to the recent elimination of federal research grants focused on LGBTQ+ health, many of which she said are based in Massachusetts, and said the effects are already being felt here. 'Just in the last several days, several of my very large-scale, multi-million dollar grants that are funded by the federal government have been terminated,' Charlton said. 'Halting this work … is setting a really concerning precedent where scientific inquiry is going to be stifled by political rhetoric and potentially erasing our entire community from future research agendas.' She said that while partnering with philanthropists and foundations can help groups continue to do this type of research, they still need aid from the state and feds to be able to 'fill this gap.' Calls were loud Tuesday for allied legislators to do more. Taimur Khan, associate medical research director at the Fenway Institute, urged legislators to close gaps in existing care and use their platforms to advocate nationally for LGBTQ+ communities. 'Continue championing policies that make our health care system more inclusive. This means protecting the gains we have made, ensuring LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections remain strong, and filling any gaps that remain. It means funding critical services like community health centers, HIV prevention and treatment programs, health care services for LGBTQ+ youth and outreach for seniors,' Khan said. And Boston Medical Center GenderCare Center's research lead, Carl Streed, expressed confusion about what the Legislature is actively doing to protect programs from federal elimination. Streed said other issues, like Medicaid funding threats and the housing crisis, also impact LGBTQ+ patients served at BMC. 'We are probably in the best, safest jurisdiction right now, given the federal assault, but we can do more,' Streed said. 'I need guarantees that our funding is not going to get cut … I want to understand what's the actual strategy to safeguard our patients, to safeguard our community.' The federal-local connection is on the minds of lawmakers like public health committee co-chair, Rep. Marjorie Decker, who said her team has been having conversations since November with leadership, colleagues and the Department of Public Health about how to ensure access to gender-affirming care remains in Massachusetts. 'I'm standing here and my heart is racing because quite honestly, like many of you, the level of anger that I feel here — in turn, that anger is only going to fuel the organizing that we will do to think out of the box, to collaborate and to make sure that at the end of the day, there will still be a system of access of care to everyone in our state,' Decker said. Rep. Sam Montaño seconded the state Legislature's commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ rights, but flagged a lack of support they see in Congress. 'Where I'm not sure that we're so good is our federal delegation. And I think we've seen that through Seth Moulton, you can see that through other folks who haven't been outwardly supported, who have questioned this movement,' Montaño said, encouraging people to call their congressional leaders. In November, Moulton made national headlines after he suggested that Democrats' support of allowing trans girls to play girls' sports was tied to the party's presidential election loss. Gov. Maura Healey, among numerous other Massachusetts Democrats, publicly spoke against Moulton's commentary. Other personal reflections from lawmakers, including Sen. William Brownsberger and Reps. John Patrick Lewis and John Moran, expressed broad support in the Legislature for the LGBTQ+ community. Moran spoke about his positive experience receiving care tailored to him, as a member of the LGBTQ community. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
07-03-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
NIH abruptly terminates millions in research grants, defying court orders
Super added that the termination letters are also 'unlawful' because the NIH is imposing conditions on funding that did not exist at the time the grants were awarded. Advertisement The NIH did not respond to a request for comment. Scientists say the letters began arriving last Friday and earlier this week, notifying them their funding was being canceled because it involved subjects that are 'unscientific,' do 'nothing to enhance the health of many Americans,' or do 'not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.' Exactly how many NIH grants have been terminated is unclear. With an annual budget of more than $45 billion, the NIH is the largest single public funder of biomedical research in the world, and Among those whose research funding was terminated is Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her letter said she would not be receiving the last installment, roughly $650,000, of a five-year, $4 million award for honing time-efficient ways of asking patients about the discrimination they experience, including racism, sexism, sexual orientation, and age or weight discrimination. Advertisement 'These are really important groups of people to study to understand how their life experiences are affecting their health,' Krieger said . The letter she received said her work ran afoul of the administration's anti-DEI rules, although Krieger said the research itself was not related to DEI. 'This is an assault not on just one little group of researchers. This is saying certain knowledge is not to be supported by the government,' Krieger said. 'It's the proverbial, 'If there's no data, there's no problem.' It means one can't document the harms.' The letters sent to scientists said they had 30 days to appeal to the agency for reconsideration, which Krieger said she intends to do. Krieger's research enrolled roughly 700 patients at three Boston community health centers including Fenway Health. Dr. Kenneth Mayer, who heads the study arm at Fenway Health and is a professor at Harvard Medical School, said the cancellation of the grant would not immediately harm patients participating in the study. But, 'it could have an impact on patient health in the future,' he said. 'The whole point is to learn about biases. Some people avoid health care because they think they are going to be judged.' He said it's possible the four years' worth of data already collected may be used, such as to develop training programs for doctors or educational materials for patients. 'This is just such an important kind of work,' he said. An NIH official told the Globe that administrators who oversee grants were given barely an hour's notice of the terminations late last Friday before the notifications were sent out. Advertisement The official, who declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly, said they were aware of 24 such notices from four NIH institutes and centers, but said there are likely to be hundreds more. This official shared a spreadsheet that showed 76 notices of funding opportunities over the past two years that the agency 'unpublished,' meaning they were effectively scrubbed from public databases, potentially eliminating the funding for them. Brittany Charlton, associate professor and founding director of the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has not had any research funding terminated but has heard directly from several scientists who did lose their funding. She said many will appeal. Charlton said researchers are also working to partner with civil rights organizations as they challenge the legality of these executive orders. 'This goes beyond research on LGBTQ health and includes studies seeking to understand and address health issues affecting a wide range of other vulnerable communities,' Charlton said in a statement. 'Scientific inquiry is under siege and the public's health hangs in the balance as crucial studies vanish.' Sean Arayasirikul, a medical sociologist and an associate professor in-residence in the department of Health, Society, and Behavior at University of California Irvine, received a termination letter last Friday that stopped funding halfway through a five-year study involving roughly 900 participants. Arayasirikul's research studies how racism and discrimination affect people of color who are gay or transgender and need help with HIV prevention, substance use disorder, or mental health. Advertisement 'That is one of the biggest priorities for HIV prevention today and not having these data and not having this knowledge hearkens back to a time when denialism around HIV was prevalent,' Arayasirikul said. 'I am starting to think now that I may lose my job and not exist in this field anymore and that's one thing,' said Arayasirikul. 'But to erase an entire generation of scholars who come from these communities, doing this work, the impact of that is immense.' Kay Lazar can be reached at
