Doctors from Harvard Medical School have taken legal action against the Trump administration, accusing it of censoring research that referenced LGBTQ health concerns. The lawsuit, filed in a Boston federal court, alleges that the administration’s directive to scrub references to “gender ideology” from government platforms led to the deletion of their work from the federally managed Patient Safety Network (PSNet).
The two researchers, Dr. Celeste Royce and Dr. Gordon Schiff, argue that the removal of their articles—one addressing endometriosis in transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals and another highlighting suicide risk in LGBTQ communities—violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, they contend that the administration’s actions amount to viewpoint-based censorship.
The removals stem from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office, which instructed federal agencies to eliminate references to gender identity outside of a strict biological framework. Shortly after, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued further guidance, directing agencies to purge mentions of “gender ideology” from government communications.
Dr. Schiff criticized the move, calling it an attack on public health. “Erasing research on at-risk communities is not just censorship—it endangers lives,” he stated.
A similar legal battle in Washington recently resulted in a judge ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate removed web pages. Harvard’s lawsuit now challenges a broader scope of government censorship.
The Department of Health and Human Services has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
