Today, a U.S. district court judge blocked the National Institutes of Health from terminating research grants that funded essential research addressing the health of sexual and gender minorities, including critical HIV research. The court ruling followed two hearings in GLMA v. NIH, the lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, alongside law firms Crowell & Moring LLP and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP on behalf of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality and 16 individual health researchers whose funding was eliminated or whose grant applications have been unlawfully withheld from review.
“Today, the court saw NIH’s directives prohibiting funding for research specifically related transgender people’s health and the intersectional health needs of LGBTQI+ people as what they are: discriminatory actions that violate our constitution and federal law,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Senior Counsel and Health Care Strategist at Lambda Legal. “With today’s ruling granting a preliminary injunction, our plaintiffs can continue with their critical research while our case challenging these harmful actions proceeds. We will continue our fight not to allow this administration to return us to the dark days when our federal government ignored the health needs of LGBTQI+ people.”
In today’s decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland held that such actions unlawfully discriminated against LGBTQI+ health researchers in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection component and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. With today’s decision, the court joins another federal district court in Massachusetts in finding that such directives are unlawful.
NIH announced the termination of research grants, which are worth more than $800 million but are estimated to equal less than one percent of the total NIH portfolio, as a direct result of the executive orders issued by President Trump that target equity-related grants and forbid federally-funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, and from recognizing the existence of transgender people.
“Today’s ruling affirms what health professionals have made clear for decades: LGBTQ+ health research is not optional; it is essential,” said Alex Sheldon, MA (they/them), Executive Director of GLMA. “NIH’s attempt to defund this work was never about science; it was an effort to erase transgender people, LGBTQ+ communities, and the researchers committed to our health. By halting these unlawful terminations, the court has protected both the integrity of public health research and the careers of those advancing it.”
Since the new administration took office, NIH, under Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., has cancelled or substantially reduced 669 grants, of which at least 323 — nearly half of them — addressed the health of sexual and gender minority groups.
The court today ruled orally from the bench. A written order and decision are forthcoming. The lawsuit, GLMA v. NIH, is one of six lawsuits Lambda Legal has filed against the Trump administration. Read today’s ruling and more about the lawsuit here.
Read more about Lambda Legal’s battle against the Trump administration here.