A Harvard Medical School associate professor, whose work spans more than 15 years of research related to LGBTQ+ health, is suing NIH for terminating a grant studying the mental health of LGBTQ youth. The termination came without warning, put her livihood and the careers of 18 researchers at risk, and threatens to cease and to silence crucial research, according to masslive.com
Reports masslive.com:
“These grant terminations have broader implications. When science is silenced by ideology, we all lose,” Brittany Charlton — who is also an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the founding director of the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence — said in the lawsuit.
For more than 15 years, Charlton has received more than 15 grants and was awarded an R61 grant from the NIH. This last grant “aimed at time-sensitive policy questions, to study the impact of discriminatory and supportive legislation on the mental health of LGBTQ young people,” the lawsuit, filed earlier this month in federal court but updated Friday, read.
“The overarching goal of the R61 project was to understand how four types of LGBTQ-related policies — religious exemptions, healthcare bans, restrictive curricula, and supportive curricula — impact mental health in late adolescence and early adulthood,“ Charlton said in the lawsuit. ”The findings would offer timely, evidence-based guidance to help healthcare providers, educators, and policymakers improve mental health for all young people, not just those who are LGBTQ.”
The act of applying for the grant “was an intense and compressed process,” with only months to write the application to secure five years of funding,“ she wrote. Family events, professional obligations and personal milestones had to be ”set aside” in order for her to receive the grant in a timely manner.
NIH had previously approved $4.15 million in grant money, with the project launched in August 2024, Charlton wrote. In February, she received a no-cost, two-month extension on her grant that was to last until April 30. To Charlton, this was unusual; she contacted her program officer for context and their supervisor and received no responses.
Then, NIH terminated her funding on March 12.
“This award no longer effectuates agency priorities,” NIH told Charlton, according to the lawsuit. “Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs.”
“Before the termination, I had never received any previous indication that my grant was in jeopardy,” she wrote. “… I do not understand what the termination notice and revised Notice of Award mean by ‘gender identity’ or ‘biological realities’ concerning my project.” …
“If research on marginalized communities can be erased for political reasons, it sets a dangerous precedent: that some lives are less worthy of understanding, care, or protection. This is not just an attack on the LGBTQ community — it is a blow to the integrity of science and the health of every American.”
Read the complete massive.com story here.
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