The administration of President Donald Trump has cut taxpayer-funded grants for transgender experiments on animals, the watchdog White Coat Waste Project (WCW) told Breitbart News exclusively.
Two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants awarded under the administration of former President Joe Biden — both to Harvard University — were terminated early on March 12, per WCW, a bipartisan government watchdog.
One of the grants, worth $299,940, was titled “Gender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy on Breast Cancer Risk and Treatment Outcomes” and used toward “transmasculine” animal experiments, in which female mice were administered testosterone and had their ovaries removed.
“This proposal will undertake preclinical studies to address breast cancer (BC) risk and treatment concerns of transmasculine people (female-to-male transition),” an abstract of the grant reads, noting that “most transmasculine individuals pursue testosterone therapy (TT) to treat their gender dysphoria.”
“The breast is a sex hormone-sensitive organ. Transmasculine individuals who receive TT are now a subject of concern – very little is known about how such high levels of testosterone affect the breast and subsequently risk of developing BC,” the summary asserts, adding that human studies of this subject are “decades” away.
The “Gender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy […]” grant began in September 2023 and was set to end in August 2025, but Trump’s NIH succeeded in cutting its lifespan short earlier this month. The agency likewise put a stop to a second grant focused on “Molecular Mechanisms of Hormone-Mediated Sex Differences in Wound Healing” that began in September 2024. Per WCW, the $442,444 project was set to receive $2.2 million total through 2029 before Trump’s revamped NIH killed its funding last week.
The grant abstract reads in part:
Sex has received growing interest as a factor in wound healing [WH], and some studies show higher rates of non- healing wounds in men. It has long been known that in male rodents testosterone (T) impairs WH via androgen receptor effects. Sex hormone (SH)-induced changes in wound repair have been studied as a possible risk factor, but their impact is uncertain due to factors like illness that alter hormone levels. A novel and promising way to better understand this link is to examine WH in transgender patients on exogenous hormones.
Dr. Devin O’Brien Coon — who specializes in transgender surgeries — was listed as the project leader for this second grant. Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s physicians directory lists “LGBT health and gender affirming surgery” as one of Coon’s “clinical interests.”
WCW noted that Coon coauthored a paper titled “A Novel Mouse Model for Investigating the Effects of Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy on Surgical Healing.” The experiments documented in the paper involved sterilizing female animals by removing their ovaries, injecting them with testosterone, then inflicting wounds on the creatures, all to “mimic gender affirming surgery in transgender men.”
WCW President and Founder Anthony Bellotti praised the Trump administration’s efforts as victorious in a statement:
We’re proud that our blockbuster investigation has prompted President Trump and DOGE to slash millions in wasteful spending earmarked for creating transgender lab animals through sterilization, hormone therapies and invasive surgeries and then subjecting them to open wounds, electroshocks and other painful and deadly experiments.
This is a great victory for taxpayers and animals. Despite the mainstream media’s shameful misinformation campaign, transgender animal experiments are real—and really wasteful—and our investigation has secured the receipts for dozens more active grants that still need to be cut. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!
WCW added that Trump, together with DOGE, have slashed a total of nine grants worth $8 million-plus that used taxpayer funds to conduct transgender experiments on animals. The watchdog noted that the Biden Administration awarded such grants not only to NIH but also to the National Science Foundation and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump has continued to bring these revelations to light, even mentioning them during his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4. The president highlighted the projects, stating, “[…] $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real.” The next day, DOGE announced that NIH canceled several grants for transgender experiments on animals.
“BREAKING @DOGE just cut millions in wasteful govt spending on disturbing & cruel transgender animal experiments exposed by WCW! Thank you DOGE,@elonmusk & @POTUS!” WCW wrote at the time.
In February, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) confirmed that at least $241 million in taxpayer dollars were used to study transgender surgeries and treatments on animals under the Biden administration. WCW Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Justin Goodman detailed the experiments during his testimony at an Oversight Committee hearing that month:
They involve mice, rats, monkeys, who are being surgically mutilated and subjected to hormone therapies to mimic female to male or male to female gender transitions, gender-affirming hormone therapies. And then looking at the biological, psychological and physiological effects of the gender transitions. Looking at the effects of taking vaccines after you’ve transitioned these animals from male to female or female to male. Looking at the size of their genitals changing after you’ve put them on estrogen or testosterone therapies to transition them.
WCW has continued to blow the lid off of unethical animal experiments conducted on the taxpayer’s dime. One particularly horrific example involved locking beagles’ heads in cages while hordes of hungry sandflies ate them alive. Researchers were testing an experimental drug for “disease-causing parasites,” according to reports. At the time, WCW revealed that the puppies were “vocalizing in pain” during the experiments.
Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) annual Festivus report highlighted another grotesque experiment uncovered by WCW, describing it as an “Orwellian Cat Experiment.”
“The experiment involved slicing the back of male cats, exposing their spinal cords. Researchers then used electrodes which ‘fired off electric shocks while the incision was still open to make cats have an erection,’” Breitbart News detailed. “[…] Researchers continued to torture cats, shocking them up to ten minutes at a time and severing their spinal cords[.]”
