The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbed critical data and webpages related to LGBTQIA+ issues as part of an executive order seeking to “end federal funding of gender ideology.”
The page for the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System, a study that tracks behavioral habits among young people, is no longer available on the CDC’s website as of 5:30 p.m. on Friday. In addition, the agency pulled a webpage detailing common “terminology” among youths, including LGBTQIA-related terms.
NBC News reported that the CDC’s main page on HIV was also briefly removed but has since been restored. Critical guidelines around care for patients with HIV were also pulled down as federal workers rushed to meet a Friday deadline, according to the article.
The information appears to have been pulled as part of an executive order issued by President Trump on day one in office called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on Jan. 29 giving federal agencies until 5 p.m. on Jan. 31 to “end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology,” which the order defines as terms that do not adhere to a person’s biological sex.
By 5 p.m. Friday, federal agencies were required to notify all employees that they were complying with the executive order and remove all public-facing media that “inculcate or promote gender ideology,” according to that memo.
The CDC pages discussed gender identities and common terms used by young people who may be exploring their gender or experiencing gender dysphoria. Pages discussing gender identity on the U.S. Census website were also removed.
Online tools to estimate and reduce the risk of HIV were down at the time of writing.
CDC studies on social vulnerability and racism as a factor in health were also pulled down, per STAT News.
The Trump administration also issued an executive order this week cracking down on gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19. Under this order, the federal government is barred from funding, sponsoring, promoting, assisting or supporting gender transition for minors.
The executive order extended to coverage for gender-affirming care, pulling it from Department of Defense or federal employee’s benefits.
Deborah Blum, director of MIT’s Knight Science Journalism program, wrote on social media site Bluesky: “From a journalist friend: Just spreading the word. The CDC is purging data, so people should archive their favorite CDC datasets today, namely ones around race/ethnic diversity, LGBTQ, and reproductive health. Also health data involving climate. The youth risk behavior survey has already gone down.”
Culling the data from the CDC and other federal agencies prompted a swift public outcry. Tina Tan, M.D., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and Colleen Kelley, M.D., chair of IDSA’s HIV Medicine Association, said in a joint statement that removing the information “creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks.”
“Access to this information is crucial for infectious diseases and HIV health care professionals who care for people with HIV and members of the LGBTQ community and is critical to efforts to end the HIV epidemic,” they said. “This is especially important as diseases such as HIV, mpox, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses threaten public health and impact the entire population.”
“Timely and accurate information from the CDC guides clinical practice and policies, which are essential for controlling infections and safeguarding health,” they said.
David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, echoed the sentiment in a statement.
“Doctors in every community in America rely on the STI treatment guidelines to know what tests to run, to know what antibiotic will work on which infection, and how to avoid worsening antibiotic resistance,” Harvey said.
“These are the guidelines for treating congenital syphilis, for preventing HIV from spreading, and for keeping regular people healthy every time they go to the doctor. People will get sick. And, especially in cases like congenital syphilis where you cannot lose a day to treat, babies will die,” Harvey said.
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