Theresa Gaffney , 2025-05-21 19:51:00
A group of physicians and researchers working on LGBTQ+ health sued the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services Tuesday over the sweeping grant terminations that have impacted medical research on queer people as part of the implementation of President Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender people and diversity initiatives.
Over a dozen researchers and a nonprofit group, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, joined in filing the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The complaint also names health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH director Jay Bhattacharya as defendants.
It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits against the federal health agency since the Trump administration began its overhaul, and the second to specifically focus on how research cuts have affected LGBTQ+ research. Another group of researchers, including Brittany Charlton of the Harvard T.H. Chan School’s LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence, sued in mid-May.
Federal institutions like the NIH have made significant progress in recent years toward addressing the health disparities that LGBTQ+ people face, the complaint says, “but in a startling and devastating about-face, the federal government is once again trying to make discrimination the norm.”
The plaintiffs argue that the government action violates the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guaranteeing equal protection on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as the due process clause. (The question of whether discrimination against transgender people is based on sex is at the core of U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court case on Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The court is expected to release a decision on that case by the end of this term.)
Within days of entering the White House, Trump signed two executive orders specifically targeting transgender people. One asserted a new legal definition of sex as binary, against scientific evidence and the existence of around 1.6 million trans and nonbinary Americans. In another order, Trump aims to withdraw federal funding from any hospital that provides gender-affirming care to trans people under age 19. The complaint also cites the executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
In compliance with these orders, NIH has terminated more than $800 million worth of research grants focused on LGBTQ+ people, claiming that the research “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” The lawsuit claims that the terminations have upended the lives of scientists and clinicians, while also endangering the lives of queer people around the country.
The grant cancellations span a wide range of health topics among various queer populations. On March 21, plaintiff and Boston Medical Center physician-researcher Carl Streed had multiple grants terminated for research focused on the cardiovascular health of trans and gender diverse people and dementia in trans populations. “It is impossible to exaggerate the profoundly devastating impact these terminations have had on my research and those of my fellow plaintiffs,” Streed said in a press release.
Other plaintiffs received similar terminations for research on topics including the drivers of high HIV rates among LQBTQ+ people, alcohol use and dating violence among adolescents, the impact of tobacco regulations and communication on disadvantaged communities, training early career scientists, and more.
Some of the canceled research examines topics that Kennedy and others in the administration seem to be particularly focused on addressing. Laura Holmes, a plaintiff and assistant professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, received a termination for research on an affirming psychosocial intervention for sexual and gender minority people with autism.
The complaint asks the court to use “heightened scrutiny” — a more thorough level of review that’s also central to the Skrmetti case — to issue a judgement declaring the agency guidance and research cuts unlawful and vacating the cuts.
NIH did not respond immediately to requests for comment. An HHS representative told STAT that the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.
