This Just in from the Ocean State
HIV research funding
Funding for HIV Research at Providence’s Open Door Health (ODH) clinic was cancelled but is now restored.
According to ODH CEO Dr. Amy Nunn, it was thanks largely to the efforts of the ACLU, along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Public Health Association. “A federal lawsuit was filed against the Trump administration after hundreds of NIH research grants focused on LGBTQ+ health were cancelled,” explained Nunn in a statement. “Judge Young ruled in favor of the researchers and ordered the Trump administration to reinstate grants for scholars who signed onto the lawsuit, including myself and Dr. Philip Chan. Our grants were reinstated, and we are thrilled that science will be able to carry on as a result.”
However, the administration plans to appeal.
“While we are a bit apprehensive about the future of science,” Nunn continued, “we plan to keep marching forward with our scientific plans.”
Brown U caves
Along with so many other institutions of higher learning, Brown University has agreed to the anti-trans measures the Trump administration has demanded in exchange for the restoration of federal funds. Under terms of the agreement, Brown will adopt the definition of “male” and “female,” as outlined in the Jan. 20, 2025 anti-trans executive order.
In addition, Brown will ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports and from accessing women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
“We are especially alarmed by the university’s seeming willingness to use transgender people as a bargaining chip by adopting the narrow definition of sex from the administration’s discriminatory executive order that denies transgender people’s existence,” reads a joint statement from the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Center for Justice, and GLBTQ Legal Defenders & Advocates (GLAD Law).
“We stand with all students, faculty, and staff who feel hurt, disrespected, and fearful following the announcement of this agreement. It is shocking that an institution that has long welcomed, celebrated, and protected LGBTQ+ people on campus would so quickly cave in to the administration’s cruel and coercive agenda,” the statement continues.
Read the complete statement at gladlaw.org.
Calling out hate
As a result of a recent string of hateful incidents in East Providence, a community meeting was organized by the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias.
The incidents included the destruction of a Cape Verdean flag and the vandalization of a rainbow crosswalk in that city, seemingly committed by different individuals. Jen Stevens, coordinator for the Commission, spoke at the meeting, saying, “I’m a member of the LGBT community, and I grew up in East Providence. It meant a lot to me when East Providence started holding its own Pride celebration, and seeing a rainbow crosswalk made the city feel really welcoming. When someone goes and defaces that crosswalk, you feel a little less welcome.”
‘Kavanaugh moment’
The Rhode Island Judicial Nominating Commission has nominated Michael McCaffrey, a former State Senator, to a position on the state District Court.
This would be a lifetime appointment, despite a legislative record—going back decades—of opposition to equal rights for the LGBTQ community and to women’s rights to bodily autonomy. Calling it “Rhode Island’s Kavanaugh moment,” the Womxn Project’s Jocelyn Foye wrote, “[McCaffery] waged war against marriage equality legislation, reproductive rights and abortion access for years.”
It is expected that Governor McKee will approve his nomination.