Trump Banned Words Could Be Deadly for LGBTQ People

Newsweek reports:

An uproar followed a report in The Washington Post that claimed the [Trump] administration is prohibiting officials at the Centers of Disease Control from using a list of seven words or phrases, including “fetus,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “evidence-based” and “science-based." In response, CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald has denied that there is any outright prohibition, with the New York Times reporting it "was not so much a ban on words but recommendations to avoid some language to ease the path toward budget approval by Republicans."

Whether a ban or merely a suggestion, eliminating LGBT terms isn’t new, and the U.S. has seen the repercussions. President Ronald Reagan wouldn’t utter the words "HIV" or "AIDS," and thousands of LGBT people died as a result.

This implementation could lead to organizations closing down, research being slowed or even stopped, healthcare solutions never coming to fruition—and people dying.

“If you can’t collect the data to understand the problems, and define who’s impacted, then you can’t solve it,” David Stacy, the government affairs director of the Human Rights Campaign, told Newsweek. “It’s part of erasing LGBT people from the federal government data.”

See full story here.