Unscrubbing The Scrubbed CDC Data: Helping To Keep All Youth Safe Amidst The Chaos Of Project 2025

If all you know of the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention is the description you read on its “About” page:

You might think little has changed in the past few months.

As it was during the Biden administration, the CDC describes itself as “the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health.”

It says, among other things:

“(P)uts science into action to help children stay healthy so they can grow and learn…”

Sounds great, right?

But if you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community and you’re an adolescent?

Watch out. There’s an oncoming storm.

It’s not just about what is on the CDC site: but what is no longer on it.

What’s currently on the site is a disclaimer. That is, at minimum, a government expression of point-of-view rather than science-based, data-driven language:

”Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website as of 11:59PM ET, February 14, 2025. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.”

(Let’s take a moment to note that whoever wrote this – likely an adult male – structured their argument in a way that equates “children” and “women” as if it were 1825 rather than 2025.)

A friend of mine called the disclaimer “one of the most reprehensible things I’ve ever seen.” I agree.

Still, as a high school counselor, I’m far more bothered by what is not on the site any more.

If you go to the site’s page on “Healthy Youth,” under the disclaimer, you’ll find a page purporting to offer information on:

• Mental Health
• Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth
• Health Disparities,
• Conversation Tips

And more. But try clicking on any of those links?

You’ll get an error message.

Telling you that “The page you’re looking for was not found.”

You haven’t been 404’ed. This is not a server error.

Or maybe it is, since the federal government – from the White House to the CDC to even unelected appointees like Elon Musk – was designed to serve the American people.

Even if I take the new administration at its word; that it is trying to avoid harm caused to children, I would like to know how these actions avoid causing harm:

• Removing references to resources that support adolescent mental health, such as Genders and Sexualities Alliances, community organizations, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
• Removing a resource offering teachers objectives for their own professional development and understanding of LGBTQ+ youth.
• Separating trans youth from their LGBQ peers, which is not only hurtful but also nonsensical, as some youth identify as both trans and queer.
• Putting the offensive disclaimer atop an otherwise useful “Terminology” page that now seems at war with itself.

None of this keeps LGBTQ+ youth safe.

What can: is science-based, data-driven service, the kind the CDC offered… until a little more than a month ago.

Fortunately, with some help from The Internet Archive, we were able to re-create at least some of the pages that have disappeared or been radically reworked.

The pages were copied and uploaded locally to this site, exactly as they appeared on the CDC site prior to mid-January, except for the deletion of links to other, no-longer-existent CDC pages.

LGBTQ+ youth, and the adults who love and support them, can find restored information about:

• Supporting LGBTQ Youth
• Mental Health
• Conversation Tips
• Health Disparities
• Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ Youth
• Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth
• and Terminology

We’ve also located and are making available:

The CDC’s Self-Assessment Tool for schools interested in learning more about their own climate for LGBTQ+ youth.

And no surprise: On the CDC site:

“The page you’re looking for was not found.”

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