Over $10M in US tax dollars funded experiments creating transgender mice, rats, monkeys: watchdog
More than $10 million in taxpayer funds were reportedly spent on invasive transgender animal experiments involving mice, rats and monkeys, according to a watchdog study cited in a congressional oversight hearing.
An investigation led by the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit government watchdog, linked a number of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) grants to painful procedures and hormone treatments for lab animals across the country.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., an outspoken critic of gender ideology, cited the study in her opening remarks at a congressional subcommittee hearing last week titled "Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty."
In one of the most concerning findings, Mace said the Biden-Harris Administration allocated $2.5 million to study the fertility of transgender mice, while another experiment spent $1.1 million to explore the impact of testosterone therapy on female rats, mimicking transgender men, and their likelihood to overdose on a party drug commonly used in the LGBT community for "chemsex."
Additionally, Mace said tax dollars funded a study to transition male monkeys by forcing them to undergo hormone treatments to see if it made them more susceptible to HIV — a virus they cannot contract.
"The Biden-Harris Administration was so eager to propagate their radical gender ideology across all facets of American society that they did not pause to consider that such experiments are not only cruel, but unnecessary," Mace said.
She claimed some studies had a scientifically questionable nature.
"Monkeys cannot be infected with HIV," Mace explained. "Yet this federally funded experiment forced them to take hormone-altering drugs to study a virus they cannot have."
Citing research, which indicated 90% of novel drugs that show promise in animal testing fail during human clinical trial, Mace said: "It is well known that because of the differences between animal and human biology, animal testing frequently does not produce results relevant for humans."
Justin Goodman from the White Coat Waste Project was also on hand for the hearing with rescued beagles from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) lab supplier. In comments made during the hearing, Goodman said the U.S. government is the "single largest funder of animal testing in the country, and, in fact, the world."
"Based on government documents, we estimate that over $20 billion a year of taxpayers' money is wasted on ineffective and inhumane tests on tens of millions of puppies, kittens and other animals in the U.S. and in hundreds of foreign laboratories," he said.
Goodman added that his organization recently identified "over $240 million in NIH grants for transgender animal experiments, including $26 million in active funding."
As part of the national DEI push, colleges and universities across the country have received funding for academic inquiries and endeavors. Last year, a federal agency awarded nearly $1 million in taxpayer funding to three academic institutions to help make undergraduate biology courses more "inclusive" for trans-identifying students, claiming that most courses "inaccurately categorize sex and gender as binary."
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Abortion rate in Russia falls 3.5-fold in decade
– Health Ministry
The number of abortions in Russia has decreased by more than 3.5 times over the past decade, according to data released by the Health Ministry on Tuesday. Officials have linked the trend to policy measures, including financial incentives for families, restrictions on abortion, and support for larger households and regional cooperation aimed at improving birth rates in the country.
Elena Sheshko, Director of the Department of Medical Care for Children, Maternity Services, and Public Health at the Health Ministry, stated that “Over the past ten years, we have seen a more than 3.5-fold reduction in the number of abortions. This is a key factor in supporting birth rates,” she said.
Abortions in Russia remain legal and are available on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical and social reasons. However, the government has implemented measures to discourage the procedure, including mandatory waiting periods and counselling. Lawmakers have proposed additional policies, such as requiring private clinics to report abortion statistics and integrating abortion procedures into the Mandatory Health Insurance system to improve oversight. Some politicians have suggested further restrictions, but proposals for an outright ban have not gained significant traction.
Russia has introduced financial support programs for families, including lump-sum payments for childbirth and expanded maternity benefits while the government has also revived the Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” award, which provides financial incentives for women who have given birth or raised ten or more children. Additionally, officials have discussed policies such as restricting the promotion of so-called ‘child-free’ lifestyles and potential tax incentives for families with multiple children.
Late last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin also emphasized the importance of increasing birth rates, stating that it is “an extremely important matter” and one of the “key issues for Russia.” In order to reach the replacement fertility rate, “we need 2.1 children per woman, and at least 2.3 for our population to grow.” Currently, Russia’s fertility rate stands at 1.41 children per woman.
“We are developing a system that encompasses healthcare, childhood, and maternity, and we will continue to do everything to improve these programs,” Putin said, outlining the measures taken by the Russian government to reverse the trend.
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World's first openly gay Muslim imam shot dead in South Africa
Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The world's first openly gay imam in the Muslim faith was shot and killed in what local authorities say may be a hate crime.
Police are "hot on the heels" of the alleged suspects and an investigation is underway behind the shooting death of Muhsin Hendricks in Bethelsdorp, South African Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel told Newzroom Afrika TV.
Hendricks, 57, and an unidentified driver were seen on Saturday inside a gold-colored Volkswagon TRoc on Haley Place near Extension 24 at around 10 a.m. local time. A silver-colored Hilux double cab truck stopped in front of the vehicle and "blocked them from driving off," the Eastern Cape provincial police wrote in a statement.
The South African Department of Justice stated it was "saddened" and pledged to "track and monitor that justice is dispensed" if his murder is ultimately confirmed to be a hate crime.
"Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle," officials added. "Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed."
However, a motive is unclear.
The South African constitution was adopted in 1994 after the end of Apartheid's white-minority rule. It became the first nation on Earth to protect citizens from discrimination because of sexual orientation despite ongoing bigotry and a high murder rate.
The cleric in 1996 became the "first imam in the world to come out as gay," the advocacy group International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, South Africa in 2006 became the first country in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage.
"The ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime," Julia Ehrt, the ILGA World's executive director, wrote in the statement.
Hendricks was founder and executive director of the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation in Cape Town, a human rights organization which provides support to "Queer Muslims helping them to reconcile Islam with their Sexual orientation and Gender Identity," according to its website.
On Sunday, the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) said in a statement it "unequivocally" condemned the "shocking killing" despite his sexuality.
"It has been alleged that the killing may have been motivated by hatred towards Muhsin Hendricks due to his views on same-sex relationships," the MJC says. "While the MJC has consistently maintained that Muhsin's position is incompatible with Islamic teachings, we unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community."
It's amazing Hendricks survived 29 years. South African Islam must have been very liberal, but perhaps is becoming more hardline. Islam does that! Sin is progressive!
Amid death threats, Hendricks was the subject of a 2022 documentary called The Radical which followed his journey to establishing an LGBTQ+ mosque. "The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die," he said in the film.
This followed the murder of Imam Hassan Shariff in January 2024 outside a Newark mosque in New Jersey.
Hendricks, however, was outspoken on interfaith dialogue, mental health and trauma faced by persecuted individuals within religious communities.
"It is important that we stop to look at religion as the enemy," Hendricks said in Cape Town last year at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association World Conference.
Hendricks was "a South African that we can all be proud of, a South African that we can all aspire to be," Nel, the deputy justice minister, said of the religious leader.
Good Grief!
Grindr immunity from child rape allegation upheld by US appeals court
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