NPR for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

CDC purge of forbidden words online creates real-world fear, advocate says

EDMONTON, CANADA - FEBRUARY 03, 2024: An activist holds a poster as hundreds of activists, allies, and members of the transgender community gather at Dr. Wilbert McIntyre Park in Old Strathcona, protesting Premier Danielle Smith's proposed LGBTQ2S+ legislation and opposing legislation affecting transgender and non-binary youth, on February 03, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Protests ignited after Premier Smith's recent announcement to restrict vital procedures for transgender youth, sparked by a social media video mandating parental notification and consent. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)NO USE FRANCE
Artur Widak/Artur Widak via Reuters Connect
/
X07413
EDMONTON, CANADA - FEBRUARY 03, 2024: An activist holds a poster as hundreds of activists, allies, and members of the transgender community gather at Dr. Wilbert McIntyre Park in Old Strathcona, protesting Premier Danielle Smith's proposed LGBTQ2S+ legislation and opposing legislation affecting transgender and non-binary youth, on February 03, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Protests ignited after Premier Smith's recent announcement to restrict vital procedures for transgender youth, sparked by a social media video mandating parental notification and consent. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)NO USE FRANCE

Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.

Employees of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were ordered over the weekend to retract any articles they might have under consideration for publication in medical or scientific journals until a Trump appointee can scour them for forbidden words, terms, and acronyms.

The offending terms include "gender," "transgender," "pregnant person," "LGBT," "non-binary," "assigned male at birth," "assigned female at birth," and several others.

This came after a purge of the CDC website on Friday that included webpages and datasets involving topics like HIV, the LGBTQ community, and youth health as they rushed to comply with the Trump executive order banning references to transgender identity and another banning government diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The fallout of these moves has ricocheted across the country, particularly at agencies that exist to support people who are part of those communities.

Many of the CDC web pages and datasets had to do with HIV and AIDS, including:

For those with HIV and AIDS in San Antonio, this blackout of sites critical to maintaining their good health is chilling, according to San Antonio AIDS Foundation CEO Cherise Rohr-Allegrini.

“My clients and our staff are terrified,” Rohr-Allegrini said.

People go to the AIDS Foundation for HIV and STD testing, supplies, medical care, and counseling, Rohr-Allegrini explained. “Our clients have said, you know, what's going to happen? Are we not going to have our medications? So everybody is terrified.”

Rohr-Allegrini said it’s not just losing access to credible research and information that will make things more difficult for SAAF clients. The purge is sending a clear message to a vulnerable population.

“The message is that we are going to deny that transgender or LGBTQ people exist,” Rohr-Allegrini said, “and that's not acceptable.”

And the Trump Administration's attempt to remove references to transgender people from all government documents leaves shrapnel everywhere, Rohr-Allegrini said. She pointed to a CDC web page on safer food choices during pregnancy that was removed until the term “pregnant people” could be changed to “pregnant women,” in adherence with the Trump policy. These actions leave everyone without access to critical information about their health, she said.

The fallout goes beyond the LGBTQ community. A page tracking the health impact of climate change was scrubbed in accordance with Trump’s executive orders involving the energy industry.

Friday’s flurry of activity appears to have come in response to a memo from the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, according to tech news blog Gizmodo. The memo was entitled, "Initial Guidance Regarding President Trump's Executive Order Defending Women."

“I don't need to be defended,” Rohr-Allegrini said. “I need to be supported, and I'm supported by joining with my trans sisters in understanding the risk that we all face.”

“It's so intentional and so harmful,” she continued, “because this is a population that has suffered so much and continues to suffer, and removing access to health care in any form just creates further trauma for folks that have been through trauma for most of their lives.”

“This is harmful to them, and it's not protecting me," Rohr-Allegrini concluded. "It's not protecting my daughter, and it's not protecting any women that I know."

Copyright 2025 Texas Public Radio

Bonnie Petrie is a proud new member of the news team at WUWM. She is a reporter who - over her twenty year career - has been honored by both the Texas an New York Associated Press Broadcasters, as well as the Radio, Television and Digital News Association, for her reporting, anchoring, special series production and use of sound.