The Explosion in LGBT Grants Under Biden
In 2012, total grants obligated by the federal government related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues—either to an LGBT organization or related to LGBT issues—totaled $5 million according to data from USA Spending. In 2022 alone it was $1.5 billion.
The sudden growth all came after 2020, and almost all of it was from Health and Human Services (HHS)—$3 billion worth—headed by Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine, who is transgender.
HIV, COVID, Opioids
This funding does not include regular pre-existing direct spending related to issues like HIV/AIDS, which hovers around $28 billion a year for programs through Medicare/Medicaid, the Veterans’ Administration, and the CDC among others according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Additional grants related to HIV constitute 19.6 percent of LGBT grants based on prime loans. One sub-award is listed as providing $18.9 million for HIV prevention in South Africa.
About $200 million or 1/5th of the total amount outlaid—actually spent rather than obligated or intended to spend—for 2021 came from COVID spending supplementals.
A lot of it is related to tracking opioid use—33 percent of all grants by obligated amount. Of the top 50 grants by amount, 65 percent were related to opioid use. The largest grant—$218 million—was set aside for California to implement treatment for opioid use disorder with a focus on “black, tribal/urban indian, hispanic/latinx, and LGTBQI+ communities, people experiencing homelessness,” and other populations
Opioid grant programs have been a large source of funding for some time now with HHS spending billions a year mainly as grants going back to 2017 and now averages $4 billion a year. The largest contract, $33.4 million worth, is with the University of Montana to try and develop a vaccine for heroin.
A good portion are related to grants which focus on minority populations of every stripe—black, hispanic, LGBT, tribal nations, like those focusing on decreasing cancer burdens. A full $609 million or 16 percent of LGBT grant amounts were for those mentioning tribal nations.
The largest recipients are often state health care agencies, like California’s or Massachusetts’s department of health care services. But then there is the Los Angeles LGBT Center that receives on average of $5.3 million a year for everything from HIV and COVID testing to arts programs, homeless outreach, and mental health training.
Other Agencies
While HHS spends the lion’s share of LGBT grants, the Department of Justice (DOJ) granted $239 million, largely all of it since the pandemic, with almost $90 million obligated in 2023 alone.
Most of that went to one group—Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, a youth mentoring nonprofit that often helps juveniles that have been through the criminal justice system. The DOJ grants aren’t particularly related to LGBT issues, but it is included as one of many issues the grant focuses on.
A 2013 audit of the DOJ’s grants to Big Brothers and Big Sisters found the organization in material noncompliance and froze further funding for a time.
After DOJ, it is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Out of $111 million in grants, 34 percent, or $37 million, went to HIV issues.