QUICK STORY
An important annual survey that collects health data on LGBT persons has been discontinued under Donald Trump’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
LONG STORY
You know it is a sad day when LGBT persons are removed from an important health survey that is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Oh, didn't you hear? Check it out:
The survey, called the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System with the acronym of BRFS, has been in use since 2014. The idea behind the BRFS is simple: to collect and analyze the needs of US residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions and service use.
Included in BRFS is a module on sexual orientation and gender identity that has been used by over 30 states and territories to track health concerns relating to LGBT people.
Well, starting in 2019, that module will apparently be removed. Yep, a spokesperson for CDC confirmed it this week.
We're here. We're queer. @realDonaldTrump WILL NEVER make us disappear!https://t.co/43tn8utlaM
— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) May 18, 2018
And let’s be clear – the decision to omit LGBT people is basically saying we don’t exist. Worse, by not capturing health related information for queer persons, the medical community will be far less able to help queer people with their medical needs.
News regarding the erasure of the module comes at a time when the Trump administration appears to be in full attack mode on the LGBT community.
Just this past week, Trump’s Bureau of Prisons changed its guidelines on where prisoners will be housed and for bathroom use based on biological gender.
Additionally, the Small Business Administration, under Trump’s administration, has removed any mention of LGBT people from its website (see post).
Earlier this year, a large swath of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were summarily fired with no warning, thereby weakening HIV healthcare advocacy efforts.
As reported in the Washington Blade:
“The removal of LGBT questions from federal surveys has been a trend in the Trump administration. Last year, the Department of Health & Human Services disclosed plans to eliminate a question allowing elders to identity as LGBT on the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants.
Although HHS restored the sexual orientation question after a backlash, the department maintained the decision to eliminate the gender identity question.”
The latest efforts by Trump's administration against the LGBT community should cause all of us concern. Time and against, empirical research has demonstrated that LGBT people are among the most vulnerable in our society.
