One of the articles was removed because it contained a single sentence stating that “endometriosis can occur in trans- and non-gender confirming people.”
Two Harvard Medical School professors have filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of removing their research from public government websites because it detailed research relating to the LGBTQ community.
According to NBC News, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week on behalf of plaintiffs Gordon Schiff and Celeste Royce. It alleges that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, removed publications by Schiff and Royce solely because they contained terms such as “LGBTQ” and “transgender.”
“Allowing the government to censor research regarding patient safety for political reasons will almost assuredly increase [the number of misdiagnoses],” the lawsuit alleges.
Both Schiff and Royce are being represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic.
“You don’t often get a case that is that clear, that viewpoint discrimination is what has happened, and that is one of the reasons why we’re very confident in this case,” said ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney Rachel Davidson, an attorney representing the two professors.
The two articles cited in the lawsuit were published to, and removed from, the Patient Safety Network, a government-run website where physicians and medical researchers can upload information about patient safety.
One of the two articles, written by Royce, was removed because it contained a single sentence stating that “endometriosis can occur in trans- and non-gender confirming people and lack of understanding this fact could make diagnosis in these populations even more challenging.”
The second article, authored by Schiff on suicide risk assessment, was pulled from PSNet for using the words “transgender” and “LGBTQ” in lists of high-risk groups.
“I worry about the effect of self-censorship that can happen in an environment where you may not get funding or you may not be able to publish or talk about your research,” Royce told Boston.com. “I think we need to fight for those rights, for academic freedom, for freedom of speech.”
Royce said she suspects that more people would be alarmed if they knew how the censorship of medical information could impact public health.
“If the public understands how devastating these small, little actions on the part of the government are towards limiting medical professionals’ ability to do their jobs, to take care of people, I really feel like the public would be much more alarmed,” Royce said.
The lawsuit asks a court to find that the Trump administration’s alleged censorship is unlawful.
“We think we’re going to win in this lawsuit, and I think the message is going to be that the government does not have any legitimate basis to be policing scientific research in this way,” Davidson said.
Sources
Harvard researchers sue the Trump administration for removing their work from public website
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