HHS axes millions in funding to the AAP over Identity-Based Language

A protester at the Senate confirmation hearing for nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Jan. 29, 2025. / USA Today

In a seemingly inexplicable move, the Health and Human Services department has cut millions in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics, citing its use of "identity-based language" as the reason.

The Department of Health and Human Services has terminated seven grants totaling millions of dollars to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including for initiatives on reducing sudden infant deaths, improving adolescent health, preventing fetal alcohol syndrome, and identifying autism early, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

“The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States,” Mark Del Monte, AAP’s chief executive and executive vice president, said in a statement to The Post. The organization is exploring options to push back, he said, including a legal challenge.

What is identity-based language?

Identity-based language refers to using words that center a person's identity, like "autistic person," or "trans person," rather than separating the person from their characteristic, as in "person with autism" (person-first language) or "person with transgender history".

While not everyone prefers identity-based language, it is a powerful tool for self-identification, promoting pride, and asserting that traits like disability, race, sexuality, or gender identity are integral, not deficits, with many communities, especially in the disability rights movement, advocating for identity-first phrasing to challenge norms and claim their experiences.

Bondi tells FBI to put a bounty on Anti-Fascists and Trans Advocates

Bondi during her first press conference as attorney general in February 2025 / Wikipedia

In a memo dated December 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructs the FBI to create a “cash reward system” to incentivize providing information against domestic terrorists. However, it also makes it clear that the targets of such domestic terrorist investigations will be “Antifa-aligned extremists,” including those promoting “radical gender ideology,” LGBTQ Nation Reports.

This, quite frankly, has terrified some of the transgender community, and that is what Bondi intended. As much as the Trump administration would like it to be, none of the shooters or the pipe bomber was transgender or antifa.

So what's a fascist puppet to do? Trump is obviously breathing down her neck to produce someone, anyone, to justify his war on the American people. Perhaps she wrote this memo hoping to prod someone living on the edge into doing something unforeseen. Don't take the bait. Keep living authentically, lawfully, and in three years, this will all be a memory.