Last week the U.S. government terminated at least 68 grants to 46 institutions totaling nearly $40 million when awarded. Most were in some way related to sexual minorities, including research focused on HIV prevention. Other canceled studies centered on cancer, youth suicide and bone health. One canceled project at Vanderbilt University had been following the overall health of more than 1,200 LGBTQ people age 50 and older.
Tara McKay said the grant won’t be renewed because of the termination, which jeopardizes any long-term results. Still, the Vanderbilt project had already generated two dozen published papers, including work used to train doctors to provide better care to LGBTQ people, increasing the likelihood of cancer screenings and other preventive care.
Insights from minority populations can increase knowledge that affects everyone, said Simon Rosser, who studies cancer in gay and bisexual men at the University of Minnesota. “We now no longer have anywhere studying LGBT cancer in the United States,” said Rosser, who saw his grants canceled on Friday. “When you decide to cancel all the grants on sexual minorities, you really slow down scientific discovery, for everyone,” Rosser said. Young researchers will lose their jobs, and the field as a whole will suffer, he added. “It’s a loss of a whole generation of science,” Rosser said.