The Centers for Disease Control is now prohibited by the Trump administration from using seven words or phrases in any official documents for the 2018 budget -- those words include "transgender," "diversity," and "vulnerable." In protest of this latest assault on our dignity, the Human Rights Campaign projected many of the banned words on the exterior of the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night. For 30 minutes during rush hour, HRC and artist Robin Bell projected "transgender," "fetus," "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "evidence-based," and "science-based," and concluded with a declaration: "We will not be erased."
"Our message for the Trump-Pence Administration is this: you cannot erase us," David Stacy, HRC's director of government affairs, said in a statement. "We will meet attacks on our community with a resolve to be louder and more visible than ever before. 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. 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."
