U.S.A. federal websites scrub vaccine data and LGBTQ+ references

The Trump administration has removed references to LGBTQ+ health and information on certain vaccines from federal websites, including those of leading public health agencies. This action followed a Wednesday memo directing agencies to terminate all “programs that use taxpayer money to promote gender ideology” and eliminate related information from websites by Friday afternoon.

Trump has already issued executive orders that prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the government and recognised only two sexes: male and female. When reporters asked if diversity-related website content would be removed, he responded, “If they want to scrub the websites, that's OK with me.”

DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs aim to foster workplace participation from individuals across various backgrounds. Supporters assert they address historical or ongoing discrimination and the underrepresentation of certain groups, including racial minorities, whereas critics claim these programs can also be discriminatory.

On Saturday, major public health agencies appeared to have eliminated pages that discussed gender, sexually transmitted diseases, and LGBTQ+ health, according to ‘BBC’. Several pages on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website now display error messages. A yellow banner on the site reads, “CDC's website is being modified to comply with President Trump's Executive Orders.” On Saturday morning, pages that previously featured data on youth, transgender, and LGBTQ+ health returned “page not found” messages.

The CDC serves as an important repository for official government health data and research. The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) seems to have vanished from its landing pages. This ongoing study, which included topics such as nutrition, mental health, physical activity, and sexual activity for high school students, now has its data exploration tool offline. A version of the page, captured by the WayBack Machine, indicates it was live as recently as mid-January. Archived pages showed one aspect of the study addressed 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.”

A page dedicated to “Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth” was also unavailable on Saturday morning, though it remains archived by the WayBack Machine. A page compiling data on “Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth” appears to be removed as well. An archived version mentioned, “Stigma, discrimination, and other factors put them at increased risk for negative health and life outcomes.”

A page for recommended vaccines was briefly unavailable but returned on Saturday, omitting mention of the mpox vaccine, according to the Washington Post. The mpox vaccine is recommended for gay and bisexual men, among others, including those identifying as transgender or nonbinary, per the New York State Department of Health. A CDC page with mpox vaccine recommendations displayed an error message on Saturday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC and other U.S. public health entities, also took down pages related to diversity and inclusion. A key page from its Office of Civil Rights no longer contains any information; the main page exists, but visitors attempting to access the "civil rights" section encounter error messages.

“All changes to the HHS website and HHS division websites are in accordance with President Trump's January 20 Executive Orders,” stated HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon.

These executive orders are also causing disruptions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The USAID website wasn’t functioning late Saturday afternoon. This agency, responsible for distributing billions of U.S. aid dollars globally, found its aid records database temporarily down with messages urging visitors to “check back soon…”

USAID staff received an email indicating the agency is “conducting a thorough review of all USAID-funded initiatives, offices, and positions to eliminate any that promote or reflect gender ideology,” as reported by CBS News, the BBC’s U.S.A. partner.

On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management released a memo instructing agencies to adhere to an executive order focused on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Defending Women).” This instructed them to remove “all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” Staff were also told to “review agency email systems such as Outlook and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns.”

Earlier this week, a supplementary grant from the National Institutes of Health, aiding research institutions in hiring diverse staff, unexpectedly expired on January 24, 2025, long before its expected closure date. The CDC did not respond to BBC’s request for comment regarding the grant’s early termination. A few days later, the link to the grant information led to an error page featuring a frowning emoji.

An HHS employee told the BBC he was concerned that programs like this grant would be terminated due to Trump's executive orders. “Getting rid of that may hold a lot of weight in impacting the future of the scientific workforce,” he remarked about the grant's cessation. “But it might be years or decades before we know how that will negatively impact science.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dismissed a team of prosecutors investigating the U.S.A. Capitol riot and demanded the names of FBI agents involved in the inquiries, as reported by CBS News, the BBC’s U.S.A. partner.