CDC's Banned Words Projected On Trump International Hotel By Human Rights Campaign

Protesting President Donald Trump’s decision to ban the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from using certain scientific words, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and artist Robin Bell projected the prohibited words onto the side the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

CDC policy analysts, who are tasked with preparing the 2019 budget, received a mandate from Alison Kelly, a senior leader in the agency’s Office of Financial Services, over the weekend which banned from using seven specific words - “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based.”

The budget preparers were instructed that instead of the phrase “evidence-based,” they can say, “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.”

After the news was originally broken by the Washington Post, the HRC was one of the many organizations which condemned the ban on scientifically-relevant terms without any rhyme or reason.

In order to protest against the ban, they projected all the seven blacklisted words on the walls of the Trump International Hotel, a building which has been a popular site for anti-Trump protesters ever since the president took office in January.

The HRC ended their light display with the words “We will not be erased,” which was supposed to be a message from the LGBT community.

“Our message for the Trump-Pence Administration is this: you cannot erase us. We will meet attacks on our community with a resolve to be louder and more visible than ever before,” said David Stacy, HRC’s Director of Government Affairs. “Furthermore, the American public deserves to know the degree to which the Trump-Pence Administration has interfered with the life-saving work of the CDC.

Stacey added: “It was not long ago that the government tried to ignore the reality of the HIV and AIDS crisis to the detriment of millions. This kind of erasure has potentially catastrophic consequences beyond the words used by the CDC — it could impact the very programs most vital to the health of transgender people, women, youth, and others.”

HRC has not limited their protest to a light show. They have also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for records, including communications with the CDC, relating to the banned words from November 2016 onward.

One of the CDC analysts who was present at the meeting where the announcement regarding the ban was made, said that it was highly probable that all the health organizations have been handed similar mandates by the Trump administration. The announcement of the ban left most of the analysts shocked.

“It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’” one of the analysts said. “In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint.”

A blanket on the scientific terms would prove to be challenging for CDC researchers who have collaborated in the past with various health agencies to research on issues such as fetus development for the Zika virus and preventing HIV among transgender people.