The Trump administration and the billionaire class it represents have declared research on transgender health wasteful, unnecessary, unscientific and ultimately lacking any benefit to everyday working people. As a result, hundreds of research grants have been terminated by the National Institutes of Health for including trans people. So what is the truth? Is research on trans health wasteful and only beneficial to a small minority of people in the United States? Or are the administration’s statements and terminations of grants part of a larger attack on specially oppressed communities?
Myth 1: Research on trans health is unnecessary.
Trans people experience large disparities in health and wellbeing compared to non-trans people. Trans adults have increased risks for breast cancer, dementia and HIV compared to non-trans adults. Trans people have been found to be nearly four times more likely to have a substance use disorder, and trans youth are more than four times more likely to use illicit drugs than non-trans youth. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously found 42% of trans women to be living with HIV, with 62% of Black trans women, in particular, to be living with HIV. Funding research on trans health is not only necessary, it is life saving. Identifying these disparities allows medical providers to adapt to better reach people in need of care.
Myth 2: Research on trans health is unscientific and promotes harmful medical treatments.
When the Trump administration claims that research on trans health is unscientific and promotes “harmful” medical practices, like gender affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapy, they neglect to understand that science is needed to even prove their claims. Without the funding of health research, it is impossible to know, one way or the other, whether transgender people actually do experience differences in health outcomes, whether hormone replacement therapy carries long-term risks, or if gender affirming surgeries result in physical and psychological harm to trans people. Even if anti-trans bigots oppose trans healthcare, the funding of trans health research is still beneficial to identify if there are adverse outcomes of such care.
Myth 3: Millions of taxpayer dollars are “wasted” on trans health research.
While the funding of LGBTQ health research has been critical to identifying differences in health outcomes, historically very few studies funded by the National Institutes of Health have focused on LGBTQ populations. In 2012, only 61 studies on LGBTQ health were funded by the NIH. Between 2012 and 2022, the amount of money spent on this research by the NIH had been on an increasing trajectory, increasing to $83.2 million in 2022. Still, this just made up 0.1% of all NIH spending in 2022.
Trump and the White House have jumped on this, however, releasing articles with titles such as: “Yes, Biden Spent Millions on Transgender Animal Experiments.” This article erroneously states that $8 million was spent “for making mice transgender.” In reality, this research was carried out to better understand the long-term impact of hormone replacement therapy on organ systems and to assess the impact of hormone replacement therapy on breast cancer. Research involving new treatments and medical interventions (like vaccines) are commonly tested on animals prior to human research. The Trump administration has distorted studies like these to label them “controversial” and then to point to them as examples of “wasteful spending” on transgender research. This is not intended to be scientifically accurate. Their intention is to use salacious labels, controversial topics, and transgender health research to foster public support for their efforts to dismantle federal institutions, like the NIH and fuel their ongoing attacks on transgender people.
If the Trump administration and the billionaire class were truly interested in ending “wasteful” spending, they would not be allocating funds to study “regret” after receiving gender affirming care. While they claim that further research is needed to understand the “negative” psychological impact of gender affirming care, countless studies have shown that around one percent of trans people “regret” transitioning, largely due to a desire for better surgical outcomes (which would require advances in surgical research).
Myth 4: Trans health research bears no benefits for the vast majority of working people.
It is easy to look at statistics showing that openly trans people make up just one percent of the U.S. population and then claim that a focus on such a small “minority” of people does not benefit the other 99% of people across the nation. Unlike the small minority of billionaires who run this country, the experiences of trans people are much more reflective of the entire working class. Nearly a third of trans people are living in poverty. Nearly one-in-four trans young adults are homeless or at risk of losing their house. And research shows again and again that one of the strongest predictors of health outcomes and health access is socioeconomic status (or in other words, class). Studying trans health and ways to improve it is not just beneficial to trans people but can ultimately provide ways to increase health care access for everyone.
Studies on the long-term impacts of hormone replacement therapy, for example, helps scientists to better understand how hormones impact all of us. Some cisgender (that is, not transgender) women take hormones during and after menopause. Others take hormones to prevent osteoporosis. And ultimately, we all have hormones that influence everything our bodies do to keep us alive, well and living our daily lives.
We also know that good science relies on diversity and inclusion of all people. Some of the greatest discoveries in medicine have occurred because marginalized communities were included in the research. The inclusion of Black people in a study of heart disease and genes resulted in scientists discovering a gene mutation that decreased some individuals’ risk for heart disease. This ultimately led to scientists developing better drugs for hypertension, heart disease and high cholesterol.
Myth 5: Bans on trans health and research are not harmful to anyone.
Bans on trans health and research extend well beyond the loss in scientific advancements. These bans are ultimately part of a larger assault on the democratic rights of all working-class people. The anti-trans bigotry fueling the 851 anti-trans bills already proposed in 2025 alone, the multiple anti-trans executive orders the Trump administration has implemented, and the ongoing federal investigations into trans-inclusive policies in school districts like the Chicago Public Schools system is the same bigotry that is used to justify the the termination of trans health research funding.
A recent study also found that anti-trans legislation causes an increase of up to 72% in suicide attempts by trans and nonbinary youth. Anti-trans attacks by the Trump administration as part of the billionaire’s agenda reduce access to life saving medical care and medical advancements and increase fear and mental health disparities among trans people. The capitalist class is entirely willing to let the working class and marginalized communities bear the burdens of their attempts to reorganize the federal government for their own benefit and private profit.
Scientists and professors are increasingly organizing demonstrations across the United States in defense of science. What is needed now is for these demonstrations to become part of a larger fight back movement that can encapsulate the fights against the abduction and detention of immigrant students who stand in solidarity with Palestine, against the freezing of university funding where encampments took place, and against the overall assault on our democratic rights as the billionaire class attempts to roll back all rights the working class and oppressed have won since the New Deal and the Civil Rights Revolution. We have all the tools available to advance medicine and provide healthcare for all. We just need to fight for it.
Feature photo: Thousands march in a recent acton to demand trans rights and liberation. Liberation photo.
