Campus Talks: Why being a queer researcher ‘means speaking truth to power’

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The challenges of being an LGBTQ+ researcher in the US have multiplied since Donald Trump returned to the presidency. Funding cuts, closures of LGBTQ+ resource centres on campus, attacks on trans rights and backtracks on Pride Month celebrations have all harmed not only scholars’ crucial work, but also their ability to support the next generation of queer academics. A New York Times data analysis estimated that $800 million (£596 million) worth of research into the health of LGBTQ people has been pulled as a result of the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. 

One of the LGBTQ+ scientists affected is Lisa Diamond, a renowned researcher of women’s sexuality who lost her own NIH grant in the wake of the sweeping funding cuts. Diamond is distinguished professor in psychology and ethnic, gender and disability studies at the University of Utah. She has a PhD in human development from Cornell and is the author of the groundbreaking, award-winning Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire.

In this interview, she talks about the heartbreak, trauma and chaos that the wave of grant terminations brought about. She explains how her experience under the current administration has led her to rethink her role as an LGBTQ+ scientist, how data collection is its own form of resistance, and how she now finds herself giving her students that same kind of cautious career advice she received back in the late 1990s. For her, 2025 was a turning point for LGBTQ+ health research. In November, she and co-principal investigator Scout, a trans researcher from the LGBTQIA+ Cancer Network, launched an unfunded, all-volunteer survey of the LGBTQ+ community that has since grown into an oral history project.