Amid the turmoil at the country¡¯s federal agencies, a disturbing pattern has emerged: Research addressing differences in the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ Americans is being acutely targeted.

The Trump administration¡¯s aim appears twofold: to deny the existence of disparities affecting nearly 1 in 10 Americans and to ensure there¡¯s no paper trail proving the harm caused by policies that target the community.

According to a Bloomberg Opinion analysis, more than half of the 550 grants terminated over the last six weeks by the National Institutes of Health ¡ª collectively estimated to be worth billions of dollars ¡ª addressed LGBTQ+ health somehow. (Columbia University¡¯s grants were excluded from our tally because they all were canceled or frozen amid Trump¡¯s claims of antisemitism at the school.)

Scientists typically were told their work ¡°no longer effectuates agency priorities.¡± The form letter many of them received called their work ¡ª all of which had undergone months of rigorous evaluation to obtain federal funding ¡ª ¡°nonscientific.¡± Some researchers were told their studies ¡°ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities.¡± At the same time, other letters claimed the projects ¡°do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life or reduce illness.¡±

The administration¡¯s denial of documented disparities in health outcomes across different populations defies reason. The NIH recognized that LGBTQ+ health deserved resources and attention in 2015 when it created the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office. Though it operated with a tiny staff, the office was critical in identifying and fostering research to address disparities.

Now, the office¡¯s entire staff has been reassigned and its website has been pulled. The massive cuts in NIH funding disproportionately targeted the research it helped cultivate.

The funding loss has sidelined efforts to document and address an array of disparities, including the increased risk for alcohol and substance use and poorer perinatal health among sexual and gender minorities. NIH has also diverted resources away from efforts aimed at preventing sexually transmitted infections. HIV research, which lives at the intersection of minority and sexual minority health, was particularly hard hit by the purge. Experts warn that the changes could upend decades of progress against the virus and will cost lives.

Many of the canceled grants focused on establishing evidence-backed approaches to supporting LGBTQ+ kids and their families. Teens who identify as a sexual minority are more than twice as likely to report poor mental health and three times as likely to have considered suicide than their heterosexual peers, a reality that researchers have been working hard to understand and change.

Much of that work is now gone, including research on interventions to help...