Federal websites scrub vaccine data and LGBT references after Trump order
Published 2 February 2025
DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.
Their backers say they address historical or ongoing discrimination and underrepresentation of certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics argue such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.
On Saturday, leading public health agencies appeared to have culled webpages that discussed gender, sexually transmitted diseases, and LGBT health.
Several web pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now display error messages.
The agency's website contains a yellow banner message that reads, "CDC's website is being modified to comply with President Trump's Executive Orders".
CDC webpages that previously contained such data on youth, transgender and LGBT health contained "page not found" messages on Saturday morning.
The CDC serves as a critical repository for official government health data and research.
The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) seems to have disappeared from its landing pages. The ongoing study focused on topics such as nutrition, mental health, physical activity, and sexual activity for high school students.
The tool used to explore the data is now offline.
A version of the page, captured by the internet archive the WayBack Machine, shows the page was live as recently as mid-January.
The archived pages show that one aspect of study included children who "felt that they were ever treated badly or unfairly because they are or people think they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning".
Another page dedicated to "Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth" was also not available on Saturday morning, though the page is archived by the WayBack Machine.
A page that collated data related to "Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth" also appears to be gone.
"Stigma, discrimination, and other factors put them at increased risk for negative health and life outcomes," an archived version of the page states.