By Julie Steenhuysen and Ted Hesson
(Reuters) – Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal health agencies are scrubbing or taking down webpages, forms and programs that reflect “gender ideology extremism” on Friday to conform with an executive order that recognizes only two sexes: male and female.
CDC webpages that appear to have been removed include statistics on HIV among transgender people and data on health disparities among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. A database tracking behaviors that increase health risks for youth was offline.
The efforts are intended to comply with a two-page memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management on Jan. 29 sent to all heads and acting heads of departments and agencies outlining steps that agencies must take by 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 31.
It specifies that each agency must end all programs that promote or reflect gender ideology as outlined in the executive order by President Donald Trump requiring federal agencies to “recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
“There’s a lot of work going on at the agency to comply,” said the source who was not authorized to speak publicly, adding that the CDC is “in the process of taking down anything on the website that doesn’t support this executive order.”
At the National Institutes of Health, a senior employee this week urged agency leaders to refuse to implement the Trump administration’s guidance in an email to acting NIH Director Matthew Memoli and other top officials this week seen by Reuters.
The employee, Nate Brought, director of the NIH executive office, said Trump’s orders ran contrary to years of NIH research and findings about sexuality and gender.
“By complying with these orders, we will be denigrating the contributions made to the NIH mission by trans and intersex members of our staff, and the contributions of trans and intersex citizens to our society,” he wrote.
“These policies will lead to mental health crises or worse for tens of thousands of Americans who contribute productively to our communities.”
Neither NIH nor the Department of Health and Human Services immediately responded to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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