JUST IN: Woman has meltdown🥵 because Trump shut down her job where she studied “how to safely collect s*xual orientation and gender identity” practices. You literally can’t tell what’s a parody anymore:
“I was told to stop work immediately and that no more research expenditures would be allowed. My study is to explore how to safely collect s*xual orientation and gender identity and cancer care practices.”
“… We need better data to create better clinical guidelines for lesbian, gay, bisxual, transgender, queer, and intersx people.”
“My research was terminated as a result of the president’s executive orders.”
From her full speech: “I never received a written letter, but I was told to stop work immediately and that no more research expenditures would be allowed. My study to explore how to safely collect sxual orientation and gender identity in cancer care practices was in response to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and many other national professional standards-setting bodies that recognize that we need better data to create better clinical guidelines for lesbian, gay, bisxual, transgender, queer, and intersex people.
My research was terminated as a result of the President’s executive orders, presumably the ‘defending women from gender ideology, extreme damage, and restoring biological truth.’ Despite this rhetoric, nothing in this order defends women. What this administration does best is to call something the opposite of what it is and repeat it over and over again until we’re confused about what words even mean or what is true. This is the oldest totalitarian tactic in existence.
The ‘defending women’ executive order declares that basic federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself. I couldn’t agree more. But the order then proceeds to define sex as an immutable biological classification that erases the existence of 5.6 million U.S. residents born intersex. While doctors have hidden the bodies of intersex people for centuries, this does not change the fact that 1.7% of the population is indeed intersex. The World Health Organization has only in recent years demanded an end to stigmatizing and performing surgery on healthy intersex people. Likewise, dehumanizing transgender people and defunding LGBTQI research flies in the face of scientific truth and public safety.
My colleagues and I have worked hard to make healthcare kinder and more affirming and more accessible to the 7.6% of the U.S. population that identify as LGBTQ, particularly those affected by cancer. One in ten people in the nation’s capital identify as LGBTQ. LGBTQI individuals have unique needs that are not historically served. LGBTQI people require tailored care across the cancer continuum. It has taken several decades to build trust among these patients and research participants so they feel safe to disclose their s*xual orientation and gender identity to clinicians and researchers. I now hear every day people say they will never truthfully answer such questions again. This is understandable since all safety has been explicitly removed and our national leaders are denying their very existence.
The result is that our ability to discern important patterns that can make clinical decision-making has been severely damaged. The erasure of sexual orientation and gender identity data from federal datasets and our national networks of research impairs our ability to improve clinical practice guidelines and account for differences in the physical and social reality of LGBTQI bodies that deserve health and wellness just as much as any other American.
The recent politicization of federal funding under a bizarre moniker of ‘freedom’ has created great strain on designing and conducting research and on the public health of our nation, eroding community trust, removing federal datasets that track cancer surveillance, censoring scientific language, freezing funds, and cutting billions of dollars from scientific research. These are extremely short-sighted and dangerous actions. We have quickly lost trust of the community that have experienced the worst health outcomes in the country due to structural bias. We have lost trust of our international allies. We will lose a generation of scientists. We are turning over innovation to other countries when historically being a biomedical leader was something that we were proud of. We are watching centuries of American innovation crumble for oligarchic personal gains.
Let’s be clear: no one voted for cancer research. I mean, no one voted to cut cancer research. It is the hallmark of a bully to state what they simply wish to be, an attempt to use force in order to bolster their sense of power. It is our civic responsibility to call out every untruth and collectively defend those in our nation who are threatened the most. Speak the truth loudly and often. Protect each other. This is civilization. This is the only way to protect true freedom, scientific truth, and the public’s safety. Let me repeat: no one voted to cut cancer research.”