Researchers say that the US government tried to erase sexual orientation through their findings

Two California researchers said on Friday that a publication of US government health instructed them to remove data on sexual orientation A scientific manuscript That was accepted for publication.

The researchers also said that they were told to remove the words ‘gender’, ‘cisgender’ and ‘fair’ from their paper, who looked at smoking among rural young adults.

The reason given for the changes was to meet one executive order By President Donald Trump, researchers Tamar Antin and Rachelle Antechino said in one Blog post Where they have recorded screenshots of the revisions.

Instead of complying with, the researchers have withdrawn their paper from Public Health reports, the official magazine of the American surgeon General and the American Public Health Service.

On his first day, Trump signed back in office an executive order in which government agencies are instructed to remove ‘gender ideology’ from publications. He has signed other orders that are aimed at diversity, fairness and inclusion initiatives.

The researchers are planning to publish their findings elsewhere, Antin told The Associated Press. In the blog post, Antin and Antechino urged other researchers from publishing in magazines published by the federal government to prevent political interference.

“This would never happen in normal times,” said Antin, director of the Center for Critical Public Health, a research group established in California. “I have never been asked to censor articles for publication, nor insofar as I know, one of my colleagues has ever been asked to censor words, word choice or to remove data from a publication in response to an executive order from the White House. This is extremely unusual.”

Screenshots in the blog post show proposed data in categories with the label ‘Right or heterosexual’, ‘Homo or Lesbian’, ‘Bisexual’ and ‘Unknown’. A comment says: “According to the executive order, we cannot absorb gender language.”

Insight into how smoking fits in with the lives of rural young adults of all sexes and sexual orientations can help to adjust more effective reports in public health, Antin said. And it is a long -term practice to investigate these demographic variables.

Antin said that censorship threatens scientific integrity and, in this case, the policy of the US Department of Public Health and Human Services seems to be violating, which says that scientific findings are not “insufficiently suppressed, delayed or changed for political purposes.”

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said that the agency is repairing science to its gold standard to protect the integrity of science. All manuscripts published in public health reports must meet the executive orders of President Trump. “

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is only responsible for all content.