The Biden administration is funding a study that will stretch into 2027 to help “transgender people” cope with financial and psychological “stress” related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has approved more than $1.4 million in funding for Duke University and other organizations to “develop interventions” that will help “transgender people” cope with “COVID-19 pandemic-related financial and mental health harms” and to “promote COVID-19 prevention behaviors,” according to a federal spending database. The program will end in March 2027, nearly five years after HHS declared the pandemic was over.
The most recent payment HHS disbursed in relation to the transgender pandemic stress study was paid out on Jan. 31, more than a year after HHS’ May 11, 2023, announcement that the pandemic had ended. (RELATED: Feds Burn Over $1 Million On Video Game To Help LGBTQ Youth Stop ‘Binge Drinking’)
“Transgender people” are “particularly vulnerable” to the “financial and mental health harms” presented by COVID-19, the research grant’s description claims.
The study itself consists of giving transgender people money and financial literacy education, followed by surveys at six-month intervals.
The majority of the 360 trans people enrolled in the study will receive monthly “microgrants” for the duration of the six-month research period. One group will only receive one microgrant at the beginning of the period.
One group of trans people participating in the study will receive “peer mentoring,” in addition to monthly grants.
Today, for #TransDayofVisibility, the transgender pride flag is flying proudly outside the HHS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. – for the second year in a row.
Today and always, transgender health care is health care. Period. #TDOV pic.twitter.com/6FBVVYvqAy
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) March 31, 2023
The National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition is listed as a sub-recipient of the award, having received $87,746 from HHS to assist with Duke’s research. The coalition was founded to “collectively address the inequities faced in the black transgender human experience,” according to its website.
Beyond “addressing the pressing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on a vulnerable health disparities population,” the taxpayer-funded study also seeks to “advance the science of minority stress and mental health inequities.”
President Joe Biden’s HHS has funded several programs for transgender individuals during his tenure.
HHS, in September 2023, paid out nearly $700,000 to develop a national pregnancy prevention program for transgender males. In May 2023, the agency offered $1.7 million in grants to groups promoting LGBT youth acceptance.
The National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, HHS and Duke University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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