Wednesday, March 5, 2025

US: Deleting data on gender & climate

They delete data on trans people:

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer process transgender identity data in order to comply with President Trump’s executive order, agency representative Melissa Dibble told STAT on Tuesday [February 25, 2025].

Sexual orientation data is unaffected and “will be processed per usual protocols,” Dibble added.

The decision will likely affect a number of federal health surveillance systems, including the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Among Transgender Women and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. There is a major dearth of data on trans and nonbinary people in the U.S., so these survey systems that include them serve as critical resources for researchers.

The shift already has implications for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a singular source of behavioral health data that’s collected from high schoolers every other year. Researchers depend on it to track health behaviors including sexual behavior, substance use, mental health, and more. State and local governments can use the data to develop youth initiatives and policies. It’s the only nationally representative data on trans youth."

— Theresa Gaffney, CDC will no longer process transgender data: The decision will likely affect a number of federal health surveillance systems. Stat News, Feb. 25, 2025

Simultaneously, they delete climate and agriculture data:

"Last week, one of New York’s largest organic farming organizations sued the USDA, claiming the Trump administration is illegally putting their operations at risk at the critical beginning of the growing season.

The lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred 10 days after Trump’s inauguration. On January 30, USDA digital communications director Peter Rhee ordered staff to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change,” and complete the task within one business day.

The order resulted in a widespread, unprecedented information purge from USDA’s websites—not just of general climate change information, but of interactive data tools and funding resources related to soil conservation, sustainable agricultural practices, and extreme weather resilience, the lawsuit claimed.

It’s unclear exactly how many USDA sites and resources were affected by the purge, but according to the lawsuit, one of the most consequential erasures has been of information regarding federal loans and technical assistance for “climate-smart agriculture.” These “climate-smart” loans and assistance programs cover heaps of different sustainable practices: things like cover cropping, reduced tilling, establishing pollinator habitats, mulching to improve soil health, and restoring native plants."

— Emily Atkin, Organic farmers expose RFK Jr.'s delusion: Turns out you can't "Make America Healthy Again" when the fossil fuel industry calls the shots., HEATED, Mar 04, 2025

This was known well before the election.

I wrote:

Project 2025 Won't Listen to Climate Scientists: Non-scientists: Read beneath the surface, Medium, Aug 12, 2024

And:

If you worry about sex development, please look at environmental inputs, on this blog, November 27, 2023

And:

I’m Trans, and I Did Not Consent for This to Be Done to My Body: Why is it happening? How can we make it stop? Medium, Aug 17, 2022

three baby birds open-mouthed in nest

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

2025: Trans rights at the beginning of the Trump administration

Biologists Rip Trump’s 'Non-Sensical' Executive Order Declaring Only 2 Sexes: “Clearly, this order is not fully informed by current biological science,” said Dr. Richard Bribiescas, president of the Human Biology Association. Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, Jan 23, 2025

Lawyers and advocacy groups advise members of the LGBTQ+ community to take precautions under Trump’s executive order, Julianna Bragg, CNN, January 23, 2025

Trump’s Anti-Trans Executive Order Is Unscientific Nonsense: The Trump administration is taking a brute-force approach to push trans people out of public life. Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, January 22, 2025

Trump's 'Two Sexes' Order Could Cause Major Issues For Passports: The executive order, which requires federal documents to reflect sex assigned at birth, is already disrupting life and sparking fear for trans Americans. Lil Kalish, HUffPost, Jan 22, 2025

Rubio Orders State Department to Stop Issuing Accurate Passports to Trans People: Trans, intersex, and nonbinary people applying for passports will no longer be able to select an “X” marker for gender. Shawn Musgrave, January 23 2025

Unhinged GOP senator says trans kids should “live in fear” of their own parents: Tommy Tuberville appeared to be accusing parents of abusing their children to turn them trans. Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation, January 23, 2025

Trump’s Administration Is Taking Down Sites About Gender Identity All Over the Internet, Samantha Cole, 404 Media, Jan 23, 2025

weird little villain art

There's a military ban:

3 Out of 525,600 Minutes: U.S. Military Budget for Gender Transition: We can collectively afford gender-affirming healthcare. Tucker Lieberman, Prism & Pen, March 4, 2025

But a sports ban failed:

"Legislation that aimed to bar transgender women and girls nationwide from participating in school athletic competitions designated for female athletes failed to advance Monday night [March 3, 2025] in a divided Senate as Democrats stood united against an issue that Republicans leveraged in last year’s elections.

A test vote on the bill failed to gain the 60 votes needed to advance in the chamber as senators stuck to party lines in a 51-45 vote tally."

— Associated Press, Bill To Ban Transgender Athletes Takes A Loss In Senate Vote: "What Republicans are doing today is inventing a problem to stir up a culture war,” one Democratic senator said, Mar 4, 2025

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