CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A research team supporting LGBTQ+ people is facing uncertainty after funding awarded by the National Institutes of Health was revoked.
Annelise Mennicke is an associate professor of social work at UNC Charlotte.
She's also the co-founder of the Violence Prevention Center.
“As a faculty member who gets to do research, I really value the creativity we have,” Mennicke said. “In the tenure track position, we get to think deeply about plaguing societal problems and come up with creative solutions. Especially at UNC Charlotte, we get the pleasure of doing that with students.”
Mennicke is part of a grant research team relying on federal funds supporting LGBTQ+ people. Her group consists of a principal investigator, one grad student and five undergraduates.
“The goal of this program was to help sexual violence survivors who are LGBTQ+,” Mennicke said.
Since 2018, Mennicke said they’d tried securing grant funds to advance their efforts, but had little success.
Then in April 2024, the NIH awarded them $469,000. The grant was budgeted from May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2027.
However, things recently changed, after Mennicke’s group received a letter from the NIH stating the remaining funds were being canceled.
“It was abruptly and unexpectedly terminated,” Mennicke said. “[It’s] a real loss.”“It was abruptly and unexpectedly terminated,” Mennicke said. “[It’s] a real loss.”
“The Charlotte area is really a hub for the LGBTQ community. [They] are contributing members of our society [and] are experiencing sexual violence at much higher rates. The recension of this grant undermines our ability to increase that safety and provide the supportive services folks need," Mennicke said.
The NIH letter stated: "This award no longer effectuates agency priorities. Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such strategies ignore rather then seriously examine biological realities."
Mennicke said the NIH’s reasoning for canceling the grant isn’t adding up.
“The NIH has established strategic plans, and our grant [was] issued as part of those priorities,” Mennicke said. “It is incompliant for them to change their research priorities without going through established policies and procedures.”
The federal agency provided this statement in response to questions about why the grant was canceled:
“NIH is taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities. We remain dedicated to restoring our agency to its tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science. As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it's important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans. We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again.”
UNC Charlotte associate professor Jessamyn Moxie is principal investigator on the grant project. She’s also a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
)
Moxie said the revocation of federal funds sends a troubling message.
"I think part of this is a larger signaling that we don't matter, and we don't need to address specific issues of subpopulations,” Moxie said. “Things that work for one population have not historically for decades worked for other populations."
“As a queer person, a lot of it is two-fold for me," Moxie said. "It’s the work — but outside of work, we’re all battling what this looks like [moving forward]. Our advocacy doesn’t stop, it just signals they refuse to put money behind something we know is important.”
The NIH has been cutting research funding on universities nationwide as the administration calls on campuses to end diversity, equity and inclusion and practices unaligned with President Donald Trump's polices.
Most recently, the Trump administration instructed Harvard University to meet certain conditions or risk losing billions in federal funds, raising questions about how far the government can go with stopping universities cash flows.
Susan Roberts, a professor of political science at Davidson College, said some universities are heavily dependent on federal dollars for medical research.
“I’m not sure the extent to which they would freeze certain programs, and not the vast majority,” Roberts said. "I think Harvard is saying we’re not going to yield to your demands about the funding and what you’re going to collect from the university."
When it comes to the legality of revoking approved federal dollars, experts differ.
Either way, Roberts said some of the questions and concerns posed could be decided in litigation.
“[Campuses] may be joining other universities in lawsuits,” she said. “This may open a Pandora’s box for Trump.”
“I think colleges and universities have to be careful about whether or not they yield too broadly,” Roberts said. “I think the colleges are trying to figure out how to get a unified front. I think in a week we’ll have more of an idea of what universities are doing.”
As for Mennicke, her research team is exploring next steps.
"The university is working with us to issue an appeal of this in the hopes [of reissuing] the grant,” Mennicke said.
Mennicke said there’s still over $300,000 remaining grant dollars unused. A big portion of the money was supporting the researchers’ salaries.
“The undergraduate students were planning to work another two years on the project,” Mennicke said. “The university is going to cover them through the rest of the semester, but they were planning on working much longer.”
"To finally have achieved [this] and went through the most rigorous peer review process in the country and to have that taken away represents an emotional loss,” Mennicke said. "It’s a difficult time."
