LGBT rights group protests CDC banned words outside of Trump Hotel
On Tuesday night, and LGBT rights group took aim at the Trump administration for banning the CDC from using certain words.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) reportedly cannot use words like “transgender” in its reports, and the Human Rights Campaign didn’t take the erasure lying down.
In addition to projecting all of the banned words onto the Trump International Hotel in D.C., they also projected, “We will not be erased.”
“Banned words”
According to a Washington Post report, senior CDC officials told policy analysts that official documents for the 2019 fiscal budget could not include certain words.
Those words? “Transgender,” “fetus,” “science-based,” “evidence-based,” “vulnerable” and “entitlement.”
The report brought swift backlash from groups across the country, particularly LGBT groups.
“The Trump-Pence Administration banned the CDC from using words like ‘transgender’ and ‘diversity’ in an effort to erase us,” the Human Rights Campaign wrote in a tweet.
“Tonight we met their attacks with a resolve to be louder and more visible than ever before,” they added, along with pictures of the projected words.
The CDC denies the ban
Amidst the outrage over the banned words, the CDC has denied that any such ban exists.
In fact, a report by The New York Times suggested that the changes were an attempt to get funding from GOP lawmakers. By avoiding terms that Republicans didn’t like, the CDC might have a better shot at getting the funding they needed.
What’s more, the Department of Health and Human Services insisted that the report was simply a “mischaracterization of discussions.”
A spokesman for the department, Matt Lloyd, also put out a statement saying that the department would “strongly encourage the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.”
But that’s not good enough for LGBT activists, who saw the ban and recognized its potential for erasure of an already endangered community.
.@HRC protests tonight in powerful display projected at Trump’s DC Hotel. The projection rotated words Trump-Pence administration reportedly banned at the CDC, including "transgender" & "diversity" – and ended with a declaration from the #LGBTQ community: “we will not be erased.” pic.twitter.com/Yq8aQQdaRX
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) December 20, 2017
