The Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda is all over its proposed federal budget for next year, with related cuts suggested at nearly every federal department, totaling billions of dollars.

Any program that seemed to support what the administration deemed “radical leftists” or “gender ideology” in any way appeared to be on the chopping block — even at agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Treasury Department.

The federal budget needs approval from Congress before it becomes final, and changes are likely. But the budget is an opportunity for an administration to lay out its top priorities, and it’s clear where the administration’s priorities lie: expanding the military’s budget by $1.5 trillion while cutting non-defense spending by $73 billion. The budget proposes devastating cuts to gender-affirming care and HIV services, as well as to grant programs, universities and nonprofits that support LGBTQ+ people.

At every turn, the proposal points to grants and research funds that have served LGBTQ+ people as examples of spending that are not aligned with the government’s “core mission” and argues for “reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs.”

The White House proposes axing $204.5 million toward the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, a Treasury Department program that distributes grants to financial institutions servicing low-income communities. The proposal specifically criticized previous administrations for “abusing” the funds by providing loans to organizations that advanced “immigration, gender, and climate radicalism,” and said federal dollars shouldn’t go toward “gender extremism” — meaning, apparently, LGBTQ+ clinics that offer a variety of care, including gender-affirming hormone therapy.

President Donald Trump has already significantly limited federal funding for gender-affirming care, and more than 40 hospitals have shuttered services for transgender youth amid federal pressure. Cuts to programs such as CDFI would make access even more challenging in some areas, LGBTQ+ advocates say.

“This budget shows how little this administration values the lives of LGBTQ+ Americans despite their tremendous contribution to the American economy and society,” Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

The Trump administration wants to terminate $1.6 billion in research grants with NOAA, the federal agency that provides weather forecasts, including hurricane warnings, and tracks climate change. The proposed budget takes aim at Biden-era programs to research climate science — a topic Trump has long denigrated — including funding for things like a leadership workshop for women, including transgender women and nonbinary people, in the sciences.

The proposal also seeks to slash more than $10 billion in funding across the Department of Health and Human Services by gutting key agencies dedicated to preventing disease outbreaks, responding to mental health issues and substance abuse, and assisting lower-income and uninsured people navigating health care. The rationale, the budget suggests, is that tax dollars shouldn’t support programs to address health disparities for LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV because they “are not aligned with Administration priorities.”

Gender-affirming and abortion care at Planned Parenthood, mental health programs and harm reduction services for trans people and programs that train nurses about trans health care are also on the chopping block. The proposed cuts would effectively shutter several National Institutes of Health research programs that study disparities among people of color, low-income people, rural communities, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people.

A program dedicated to preventing teen pregnancy, which has been around for over a decade, is also at risk of elimination — suggesting the Trump administration is seeking retribution after a federal judge ruled that the administration could not force teen pregnancy prevention programs that receive federal grants to remove information about same-sex couples or transgender identity from their materials.

While the budget most explicitly targets transgender communities, it also proposes several funding cuts that would continue to strain the country’s response to treating and preventing HIV. In the last year, the Trump administration has cut more than $800 million in funding for LGBTQ+ health and HIV care, and eliminated at least 200 federal HIV research grants. The administration slashed funding to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which provides crucial funding for HIV prevention around the world.

Next year’s proposal would result in even more severe cuts to HIV programs — a reduction in $1.9 billion for HIV-specific services domestically and abroad.

The budget would wipe out the Housing Opportunity for Persons with AIDS, or HOPWA, a program designed to provide funding to state health departments and nonprofits to help low-income and unhoused people receive affordable housing.

HIV advocates say the program is crucial for people living with HIV who may not get adequate medical treatment needed to suppress the virus without stable housing. In 2022, the program provided housing for 64,500 people, but the Housing Department estimated that more than 370,000 more were eligible for, and not currently using, HOPWA, according to a fact sheet from the National HIV/AIDS Housing Coalition.

“When you eliminate housing for people living with HIV, gut behavioral health grants, and defund fair housing protections, you leave entire communities without a safety net,” Robinson said. “Programs that support health, safety, and opportunity for all Americans aren’t ‘woke,’ they are essential to the promise of America.”

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