Early career trans researchers face uncertain futures in academia
Research funding cuts and concerns about job security and personal safety have led to uncertainty amid early career trans researchers, according to a Dec. 9 STAT article.
Dougie Zubizaretta, a fourth-year PhD student in social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was among those quoted in the article.
The article described how the Trump administration has cut funding for research focused on topics such as diversity, equity, inclusion; and targeted trans people through executive orders and policy changes, such as barring their correct gender marker on passports and characterizing them as a domestic terrorism threat.
The Trump administration’s moves have led some trans researchers to delay career moves, or to pivot their focus, as Zubizaretta has done. He originally hoped to focus his dissertation on the health impact of discriminatory policies related to structural racism and structural cisheterosexism (the way that society favors cisgender, straight identities). Now he’s focusing his dissertation on sleep. But he worries about applying for future grants because, as part of the process, reviewers “would see every award I’ve won that says it’s an LGBTQ health equity award,” Zubizaretta said. “In theory, that would be a good thing, but now it’s just like a target.”
Others quoted in the STAT article voiced concerns about traveling to states with policies such as restrictions on trans people’s access to bathrooms that best match their identity, as well as online harassment.
Read the STAT article: Early-career trans researchers reconsider their future amid lost funding and fear
