House Republicans Seek FY 2027 Ban on NIH Transgender‑Related Animal Research Funding
A group of House Republicans led by Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, joined by GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan and more than a dozen others, has sent appropriators a letter asking that the fiscal year 2027 Labor–HHS spending bill prohibit federal funding for animal research involving "drugs, surgery, or other interventions" intended to alter the human body for transgender‑related studies. The push follows watchdog White Coat Waste Project and House Oversight investigations that unearthed NIH‑funded experiments to create "transgender" mice, rats and monkeys meant to mimic transgender children and adults, including a Harvard project in which female mice had their ovaries removed and were given testosterone to model transmasculine patients. The article notes that the NIH recently awarded another $584,117 to the University of California, San Diego for FY 2026 to continue a mouse study on cross‑sex hormone treatments, despite Trump’s 2025 move to cut $8 million in such grants and a federal court order that temporarily restored funding only for that year. White Coat Waste says FOIA records show the UCSD project will use nearly 10,000 mice subjected to invasive surgeries, hormone injections, brain drilling, toxin injections and eventual decapitation, and argues Gosar’s language is needed to ensure taxpayers are not forced to fund what critics call "barbaric" or "woke pseudoscience." The effort highlights how GOP lawmakers are trying to use the appropriations process to both shape federal transgender‑medicine research and curb controversial animal testing, a tactic that is already drawing polarized reactions in online debates over science, ethics and culture‑war politics.
📌 Key Facts
- Rep. Paul Gosar and GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain are leading a letter urging that the FY 2027 Labor–HHS appropriations bill ban federal funding for animal research involving interventions meant to alter the human body for transgender‑related purposes.
- The article reports NIH awarded $584,117 to the University of California, San Diego for FY 2026 to continue a mouse study on cross‑sex hormone treatments despite earlier Trump‑era attempts to cut similar grants.
- White Coat Waste Project says FOIA records show the UCSD project plans to use nearly 10,000 mice for surgeries, hormone injections, skull drilling, brain toxin injections and decapitation to model "female mice to model transgender men."
📊 Relevant Data
Among U.S. adults aged 18-22, transgender identification fell by nearly half from 2022 to 2024, and nonbinary identification dropped by more than half during the same period.
Transgenderism Is in Rapid Decline Among Young Americans — Skeptic Magazine
Approximately 3.3% of U.S. youth aged 13-17 identify as transgender, totaling about 724,000 individuals, with the overall transgender population aged 13 and older at 1.0% or 2.8 million people.
How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States? — Williams Institute
Studies have identified rare genetic variants in cell adhesion molecules associated with transgender identity, suggesting a biological component alongside environmental factors.
Transgender and nonbinary youth are nearly twice as likely to report anxiety (70% vs. 42%) and suicidal ideation (53% vs. 28%) compared to cisgender peers.
New Study Shows LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health Crisis is Worsening in the U.S. — The Trevor Project
Of the 2.1 million transgender adults in the U.S., 32.7% are transgender women, 34.2% are transgender men, and 33.1% are transgender non-binary individuals.
More than 2.8m people in US identify as trans, new data shows — The Guardian
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