Since returning to office, Donald Trump has overseen sweeping federal funding cuts to LGBTQ+ organizations across the U.S., forcing community centers, crisis lines, and health programs to fight for survival. This month, he signed an executive order escalating his campaign against so-called “wasteful grantmaking,” further targeting funding for drag shows, transgender programming, and research related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This is just the latest move in Trump’s months-long campaign to restrict grants to nonprofits, universities, and other institutions accused of “promoting gender ideology.” Under his previous orders, program descriptions containing words like gender identity, transgender, nonbinary, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, or intersectionality, triggered automatic funding reviews and, in many cases, immediate termination.

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Donald Trump is reducing funding for LGBTQ+ health, research & arts programs: “It’s unconscionable”

Donald Trump is reducing funding for LGBTQ+ health, research & arts programs: “It’s unconscionable”

Donald Trump is reducing funding for LGBTQ+ health, research & arts programs: “It’s unconscionable”

These funding cuts have decimated nonprofit programming for LGBTQ+ communities. The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center — which primarily serves communities of color — lost over $600,000 after its programming was flagged. The Black Trans Travel Fund, which helps Black transgender people access safe housing, travel, and medical care, has seen crucial funding vanish, and Pride Center San Antonio — a Texas LGBTQ+ community center offering free counseling and peer support — has lost more than $200,000 this year. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other HIV/LGBTQ+ nonprofits have warned they may be forced to shut down services.

In research and public health, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has withdrawn more than $800 million in grants for LGBTQ+ health initiatives. These cuts affect not only academic research but also community-based programs run by nonprofits, including local health clinics and LGBTQ+ centers. Kellan Baker, head of the Institute for Health Research and Policy at Whitman-Walker, told Slate that his health center lost seven NIH grants “in a single weekend.”

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Live In Your Truth, a nonprofit in Maryland’s Montgomery County that provides free on-site STI testing, among other services, said that it lost funding from partnerships with the Department of Health and Human Services. That STI testing is no longer covered by incentives and grants that the organization receives, putting it at risk.

“It’s unconscionable,” Live In Your Truth CEO Phillip Alexander Downie told the Washington Blade. “I mean, you’re cutting funds from the most underserved, your most vulnerable, your most marginalized population. You were telling the folks and community members who have the least that they should be silent and should have even less. It’s extremely disheartening.”

The arts sector has been hit as well. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) now screens applications to ensure they do not “promote gender ideology.” This has led to the cancellation of grants for theater companies, performance collectives, and festivals — including plays, drag shows, and other LGBTQ+ productions — by groups like Rhode Island Latino Arts, The Theater Offensive, and National Queer Theater.

Services for LGBTQ+ survivors of domestic violence are also at risk. The Delores Project, a Denver shelter for women and nonbinary people, expects to lose up to $500,000 in homeless services funding under the administration’s broadened restrictions.

Even suicide prevention programs haven’t been spared. In June 2025, the administration eliminated federal funding for the “Press 3” option on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — the dedicated line for LGBTQ+ youth — cutting up to $50 million in support. While California has partnered with the Trevor Project to provide 988 crisis counselors with specialized training to better meet LGBTQ+ youth needs, the loss of the nationwide LGBTQ+-specific line leaves a dangerous gap — one that could cost lives.

“This administration has made a dangerous decision to play politics with real young people’s lives,” the Trevor Project’s CEO, Jaymes Black, said in a statement in July. “I am heartbroken that this administration has decided to say, loudly and clearly, that they believe some young people’s lives are not worth saving.”

These funding cuts threaten not only the lives of hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ+ youth but also the millions of LGBTQ+ people nationwide who rely on nonprofit programs, local healthcare clinics, medical research, and community support services that are now forced to shutter services in response to federal funding cuts.

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