BALTIMORE — An association of LGBTQ+ and allied health professionals sued the Trump administration last week on behalf of researchers whose funding related to LGBTQ+ health issues was terminated.

GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality filed the suit against the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on May 20 in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, in an attempt to block the termination of hundreds of grants dedicated to researching the health of LGBTQ+ Americans.

The plaintiffs listed in the complaint are among those who lost a combined $800 million in research funding after executive orders penned by President Donald Trump sought to terminate federal funding for grants related to “gender ideology” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

“The goal is ultimately to turn back the clock to before these discriminatory priorities were put into action,” says Pelecanos, who is the Renberg Fellow at Lambda Legal, representing GLMA in the suit.

In February, the NIH issued a memorandum in which it stated that it would remain consistent with Trump’s executive orders, and no longer support “studies based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and gender identity.”

Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier, one of the named plaintiffs in the suit, is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health who has received multiple NIH research grants.

According to the complaint, NIH in March terminated a grant under which Peitzmeier was researching intimate partner violence, asserting that the research was connected to DEI.

Peitzmeier, who is originally from Silver Spring, requested to transfer one of her other research grants, regarding HIV and violence prevention for transgender women of color, to her new institution at UMD from the University of Michigan, where she was researching at the time.

She told The Baltimore Sun that this grant made up over three quarters of her salary, but was effectively blocked by the NIH after the agency stopped responding to her messages, and stalled any further payments.

“I was really excited to move back to Maryland this year and set up my research agenda here to make an impact in the state of Maryland, as well as nationally,” said Peitzmeier, who made the move but was unable to continue her research.

The NIH did not respond to requests for comment.

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