U.S Lab Transitioned Male Monkeys to Study HIV/AIDS

An unearthed study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) sought to determine why biological males who identified as transgender had higher rates of HIV/AIDS than other groups.

The experiment subjected male monkeys to feminizing hormone therapy, injecting them with the same drugs used by trans-identified males to suppress testosterone and prompt the development of female secondary sex characteristics.

In the abstract, the project is introduced by stating:  "HIV/AIDS thrives in the margins of society, where low education, unstable housing, and poverty heighten people's vulnerability to HIV. No population is more affected by these social injustices than transgender persons."

Conducted by Scripps Research, the project was funded to the tune of over $200,000 during December of 2021, but the experiments began in December of 2020. The project attempted to determine whether the hormones taken by trans-identified males impact their immune system in order to explain why their rates of HIV aren't lower than they are.

While the study alludes to the conditions of transgender persons in general, it pivots into discussing only trans-identified males in the next sentence and for the entirety of the study: "A case in point is transgender women (TGW) – individuals who were assigned a male sex at birth but express their gender along a feminine spectrum. Sadly, TGW have some of the highest concentrated HIV epidemics in the world..."

It does not appear any research was done on trans-identified females. Indeed, trans-identified females are also completely excluded from the CDC factsheet on HIV data. This may be to due to the fact that their rates of infection are extremely low when compared to their male counterparts.

External sources show that the rate for HIV infection among trans-identified females ("transmen") are very similar, if not statistically identical, to those of biological females in general – 3% versus 4% respectively.

The trans-monkey experiment has yet to publish any outcomes or papers on its findings.

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