In a sweeping reversal of his predecessor’s policies, President Trump is axing more than $100 million in federal spending on transgender programs and initiatives championed by the Biden administration. The latest salvo came Wednesday when Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports at schools that receive federal funding.
“Every day we are eliminating the extremism of the last four years,” Mr. Trump declared at a White House ceremony, where he warned schools they’d lose federal dollars if they violate the new policy.
The price tag for President Biden’s transgender initiatives spans from health care to workplace changes. One ongoing project — a breast cancer screening pilot program for transgender women — carries a $420,386 cost. The administration also poured roughly $3 million into constructing gender-neutral restrooms across government buildings, including an eye-popping $1.12 million for a single bathroom at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
Beyond America’s borders, Mr. Biden’s policies reached places like India, where $50,000 went toward transgender sensitivity training in corporate workplaces. Back home, major research grants included $1.7 million to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to study blood clot risks in transgender youth receiving hormone therapy and $5 million to Emory University for research on HIV in transgender women.
Mr. Trump’s rollback has sparked immediate pushback. LGBTQ advocacy groups PFLAG and the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights have sued to block his order cutting off funding for youth transgender services. Their lawsuit claims hospitals nationwide are now “abruptly halting medical care for transgender people under nineteen” who have waited years for gender dysphoria treatment.
The actual spending total may be even higher, according to researcher Parker Thayer at the Capital Research Center, who says the Biden administration accelerated funding for these projects as the administration drew to a close.
Read more: Biden pumped $100M into transgender projects like pricey bathrooms for trans federal workers
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