LGBTQ+ organizations around the country have spent the early weeks of the Trump administration fighting for their patrons’ and employees’ rights. Now, they’re fighting for funding as well.
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center’s (PRCC) Trans Chicago Empowerment Center was one of the organizations who learned they would be losing all federal funding due to Trump’s crackdown on funding for LGBTQ+ groups. The organization is now scrambling to find ways to keep its doors open.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been in headlines recently for its removal of HIV-related information on its website, Trump’s recall of any research focusing on marginalized groups and its halting of funding for gender-related services. Trump issued an executive order Jan. 28 barring any federal funds from going towards transgender healthcare for minors.
Ricardo Jimenez, Director of Public Health Initiatives, said that, as of Feb. 7, had laid off 15 people. However, the group plans to keep working until all the money and resources run dry.
“We do HIV testing, linkage to care, hormones; we have hundreds of people we’ve serviced during the year,” he said. “All those programs have been stopped, but we are serving them with whatever we have here until we have nothing left.”
According to Jimenez, the CDC notified the center of its grant stoppage via email on Jan. 30. The program assisting teenagers with gender-affirming care was completely terminated while the one assisting adults has been halted.
Jimenez said the CDC was funding the group through a grant it received in 2017 and then renewed in 2022. Now, employees are fundraising to keep the center open and provide funds to those who were laid off.
The stoppage of grants affects much more than gender-affirming care, he said. Federal grants were also funding HIV testing and a variety of other programs offered by the center.
Jimenez said these types of actions from the federal government are deeply alarming and unprecedented, and people should be paying attention to how federal forces are being weaponized against marginalized groups.
Tichike Tumalan, a health educator at Trans Chicago, said employees who have been affected by layoffs are still planning to be involved with the center’s upcoming events, and the group plans to keep hosting community events until they physically can’t anymore.
Along with fundraising efforts, he said the center is looking into potential private funding sources like other LGBTQ+ organizations have.
“We’re hanging in there,” Tumalan said. “It’s tough, but we know the community has our back. “Everyone’s been DM-ing us and has been super supportive, so we’re leaning on that.”