In its first 100 days in power, the Trump Vance Administration has effected a radical restructuring of the nation's public health, research, and foreign policy infrastructure.
BOSTON, April 30, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In its first 100 days in power, the Trump Vance Administration has effected a radical restructuring of the nation's public health, research, and foreign policy infrastructure. In the process it has dismantled policies developed over the past several decades that advanced equality and health equity for LGBTQI+ people and other populations, and that advanced effective, science-based HIV and STI prevention and care. This dramatic shift in public health and human rights policy could have devastating effects of people in the U.S. and around the world, according to a policy brief published by The Fenway Institute on April 30, 2025—the 100th day of the new administration.
This brief, titled In first 100 days, Trump Vance Administration dismantles critical policies promoting LGBTQI+ health equity, racial and ethnic health equity, and HIV/STI prevention and care, examines the potential impact of:
- anti-transgender executive orders on health and well-being and the ability of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people to access gender affirming care (GAC),
- the rescinding of federal sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) nondiscrimination regulations,
- the suppression of information about LGBTQI+, racial and ethnic, and other health disparities,
- the sudden ending of HIV and LGBTQI+ health research, and
- the defunding of HIV prevention and care programs here in the U.S. and with LGBTQI+ communities in Africa and elsewhere around the world.
"It is striking that while a vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination laws, the new administration is moving to repeal SOGI nondiscrimination in federal regulation," said Sean Cahill, PhD, Director of Health Policy Research at the Fenway Institute and the report's author. "While more and more Americans know a transgender person, the new administration is abruptly ending health research with LGBTQI+ populations, removing references to them on government websites, and restricting rights more broadly throughout society. "
The Fenway Institute report describes how the National Institutes of Health have ended 800 research grants. The largest proportion were HIV research grants, followed by transgender health research grants. Also cut were grants examing health disparities affecting Black people, and a training grant to increase the representation of Black women in science research professions. Cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program created in 2003 by President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress, are also described.
"An elimination of PEPFAR funding to South Africa will result in an additional 601,000 HIV-related deaths and 565,000 new HIV infections over the next ten years, according to a study just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine," Cahill said. "South Africa is just one of 55 countries that depend on PEPFAR funding to provide HIV care and prevention. These cruel and abrupt policy changes—in violation of the federal budget passed by Congress—will cause many people to get sick and die over the next decade."
Hundreds of LGBTQ HIV prevention organizations in Uganda and elsewhere have lost their PEPFAR funding and closed down their operations apparently because they are seen as promoting "gender ideology extremism." The Trump Administration is also proposing drastic cuts to the National Institutes of Health and to HIV prevention in the U.S., which will end up costing our health system more in the long run and cause many more individuals to become infected with HIV. This will undermine President Trump's Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative, launched in 2019. "We must challenge policies and funding decisions that undermine public health and human rights," said Cahill.
In first 100 days, Trump Vance Administration dismantles critical policies promoting LGBTQI+ health equity, racial and ethnic health equity, and HIV/STI prevention and care is available on the Fenway Health website.
Founded in 1971, Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish. The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health is an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues.
Media Contact
Christopher Viveiros, Fenway Health, 6177217494, [email protected], Fenway Health
SOURCE Fenway Health
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