I’m kind of torn on this one. I’ve seen the “transgenic” explanation in several other places, and as I normally do, my initial reaction was “Ha ha, stupid Trump.” (And also a deep underlying sadness that doesn’t ever really go away)

But I clicked the link on this post. They listed the grants referenced in their $8 million total. One did mention transgenic mice, though others could use transgenic mice and not specifically mention it. But if you click through to the grant proposals (which I assume DOGE did not write), every entry does indeed involve research on the effects of gender-affirming medication, even the one that mentions transgenic mice. To be clear, the other claim from media reports is also true - that these are grants for cancer and HIV research. But specifically, for things like the interaction between HIV vaccines and gender affirming meds.

To make my position clear, I support these studies. I think it’s important to study how asthma and cancer medications may affect the trans population differently than those not on gender-affirming meds. And you never know what additional discoveries will be made along the way. But I think that the response that MAGA got confused about transgender vs transgenic is disingenuous at best, if the information from this link is true (who knows if the 8 mill is the full contract or remaining values, etc).

I think diversity, equity, and inclusion are exactly what we need, and historically, a lot of harm has been caused by treating white male as default in medical studies. It is a truly terrible thing that they are canceling studies like these. But I think we need to recognize that when they say things like, Biden spent 8 million dollars trying to make mice transgender, what we’re dealing with is bait. They want us fighting over whether or not we made mice transgender. The point here is that this is yet another example of this Federal government usurping the power of the purse without being checked. They will always try to use small lies to hide the Big Lie.