‘The program invites a small cohort of trainees … who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities’
Last year, the National Institutes of Health sent more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded grants to Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH). At the same time, the institute hosted a summer program for graduate scholars that it offered only to “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities (SGM).”
The program saw Northwestern invite “a small cohort of trainees in the behavioral and social sciences” to campus to “attend a series of lectures and workshops” on “Intersectional BIPOC SGM-focused HIV Science.” Those lectures did not include straight or white scholars. In both its online description of the program and in its application, Northwestern stated plainly that the program was restricted to racial, sexual, and gender minorities.
“The program invites a small cohort of trainees in the behavioral and social sciences who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities (SGM) in either graduate or postdoctoral training programs to attend a series of lectures and workshops,” an archived version of the program’s website states. The 2024 application for the program, meanwhile, required applicants to state their “racial background,” pronouns, “current gender identity,” “current sexual orientation,” and whether they were “Latinx/Latino/Latina or Hispanic,” according to a copy reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
The program’s racial and sexual requirements did not put the institute at odds with the Biden administration, which awarded a $1.3 million grant to ISGMH in 2022 for a program on “sexual and gender minority health.” They could, however, attract the ire of the Trump administration, which has taken aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on college campuses and moved to slash NIH funding for the so-called indirect costs that come with federal research grants. The ISGMH grant is active through 2027, and roughly half of the funds are yet to be distributed.
The requirements could also land Northwestern in legal trouble. Similar racial restrictions for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont prompted the school to pull the job posting amid threats from attorneys. Northwestern appears to have made a similar move—sometime between September and January, the ISGMH amended the webpage for its summer program to remove references to race, gender, and sexual orientation, archives of the site show.
“The program invites a small cohort of trainees in the behavioral and social sciences in graduate or postdoctoral training programs to attend a series of lectures and workshops,” the updated language states.
For Dan Morenoff, executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, the institute’s walkback serves as a tacit admission that the program’s restrictions violated federal law.
“NU is a federal funding recipient. Title VI bars it from racially discriminating in its programming. Title IX bars it from discriminating in its programming based on sex,” Morenoff told the Free Beacon. “That means it is illegal for NU to accept or reject applicants to any program based on either race or sex.”
Northwestern did not respond to a request for comment.
Founded in 2015, the ISGMH touts its status as “the first university-wide institute in the country focused exclusively on research to improve the health of the sexual and gender minority (SGM) community.” Its discriminatory summer program is far from its only source of controversy.
Two of the institute’s lead faculty members, Steven Thrasher and Alithia Zamantakis, were central figures at the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that plagued Northwestern last spring. Thrasher, a journalism professor, serves as Northwestern’s “chair of social justice in reporting,” while Zamantakis, a research assistant professor, focuses on “health equity for Black and Latinx transgender and nonbinary individuals, specifically regarding HIV care and gender-affirming care.”
The two professors were charged with obstructing police officers at the encampment last April after they engaged in what they called a “defensive line” meant to prevent officers from reaching student protesters. Thrasher touted his doing so at the time, writing, “We locked arms and kept the police at bay. They retreated. 24 hours later the camp is still up.” For her part, Zamantakis called it “a pretty mind-blowing experience to have your employer send their own police after you to arrest you within your place of employment.”
Thrasher has also accused Israel of persecuting “Queer Palestinians,” a contention that came through a joint Instagram post with “Mama Ganuush,” a self-described “Palestinian African trans drag artist” who is “dedicated to ending the Palestinian genocide & liberation from the Israeli apartheid.”
“Queer Palestinians have long faced Israel’s targeted attacks on their lives and institutions,” the post stated. “Palestinian doctors provided stigma-free care, but Israel destroyed this system.” Historically, such “queer Palestinians” have been killed, threatened with charges, or forced to flee to Israel.
Northwestern canceled Thrasher’s classes, placed him on paid leave, and launched an investigation into his encampment actions in September. In turn, thousands of “scholars, journalists and health professionals” signed a petition demanding his reinstatement and arguing he was targeted not for blocking cops but for “his political speech against Israel’s war in Gaza.” Northwestern’s journalism school recommended no disciplinary action against him, according to Thrasher, who is set to return to campus in April. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Northwestern is one of five universities under federal investigation for “widespread antisemitic harassment.” It is also one of 10 campuses that the Trump administration’s task force to combat anti-Semitism will visit in an “effort to eradicate anti-Semitism, particularly in schools.”
