Leading public health agencies appear to have culled webpages devoted to gender, sexually transmitted diseases, and LGBT health on Saturday morning.
Several web pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now display error messages.
CDC webpages that previously contained such data on youth, transgender and LGBT health contained “page not found” messages on Saturday morning.
The CDC serves as a critical repository for official government health data and research.
The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) seems to have disappeared from its landing pages. The ongoing study focused on topics such as nutrition, mental health, physical activity, and sexual activity for high school students.
The tool used to explore the data is now offline, external.
A version of the page,, external captured by the internet archive the WayBack Machine, shows the website was live as recently as mid-January.
The archived pages show that one aspect of study included children who “felt that they were ever treated badly or unfairly because they are or people think they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning”.
Another page dedicated to “Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth” , externalwas also not available on Saturday morning, though the page is archived by the WayBack Machine.
A page that collated data related to “Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth” , externalalso appears to be gone.
“Stigma, discrimination, and other factors put them at increased risk for negative health and life outcomes,” an archived version , externalof the page states.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the umbrella agency that oversees the Centers for Disease Control and other US public health agencies, also took down pages relating to diversity and inclusion.
A key page from the agency’s Office of Civil Rights no longer appears to contain any information. The website for the office remains, but a reader who wishes to click on the “civil rights”, external page of the site will see nothing but an error message.
BBC News