Websites on HPV vaccinations, data on high schoolers’ health habits, and information on programs to end violence against women and girls began disappearing from government websites this week as agencies scrambled to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order against “gender ideology.”
The order, signed within hours of Trump taking office on January 20, mandates that the U.S. government recognize only two sexes that are “not changeable.” A memo sent to agency heads detailed a laundry list of tasks required to comply with the order, including withdrawing all relevant documents, directives, and materials that promote a view of gender no longer in line with U.S. government policy.
By Friday afternoon, search results for “gender” on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website returned a graveyard of dead links, many of which had been active days or even hours earlier. A page on health care treatment guidelines for transgender people was gone, as was a page on the value of school gay-straight alliance clubs. Information on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases disappeared.
The website of the Department for Health and Human Services scrubbed pages on gender-affirming care and LGBTQ+ rights. Several research databases also disappeared, sparking alarm among researchers. These included the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which uses biennial surveys to track tobacco and drug use, sexual activity, dietary choices and other things that could undermine the health of high school students.
Researchers began sharing warnings on social media several days ago, urging members of the community to make copies of federal health data before the information was removed from the CDC website. Some called it a modern-day equivalent to burning books, likening the move to “the torching of the library at Alexandria” by Julius Caesar.
Others fretted that the action was a sign that the Trump administration would stop maintaining the disappeared databases going forward. Even if they are revived in the future, a four-year gap would undermine their research value.