HHS cuts HIV and diversity grants

    The main point: Since February, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has terminated hundreds of grants, mainly to universities, including dozens devoted to HIV research and others related to chronic diseases.

    • Many of the grants appeared to mention gender, sexuality, or diversity. More than 50 devoted to HIV research were cancelled.

    Why it’s important: Many of the grants cut were related to substance use and mental health, either in connection to HIV or substance use among gender/sexual minorities.

    The details: Just a few of the many examples include grants related to:

    • Preventing drug misuse among sexual minority youth
    • Social media anti-vaping messages to reduce e-cigarette use among sexual and gender minority teens
    • The role of structural stigma in alcohol-related inequities among sexual and gender minority young adults
    • Development of a school-based prevention intervention to promote adolescent mental health equity
    • Increasing resistance to tobacco marketing among young adult sexual minority women
    • Risk factors for cannabis use among women
    • Structural inequities as drivers of HIV and substance use
    • Stigma and its influence on Black and Latino bisexual men at risk for substance misuse and HIV
    • Impacts of racial inequality on substance use and HIV outcomes
    • Mentoring clinical investigators in patient-oriented research on substance use and HIV