Comedian George Carlin had his list of “Seven Words You Can Never
Say on Television.” It was one of his more popular monologues and it
attacked the ridiculousness of censorship with laughter.
But those were words one couldn’t say in a broadcast, such
as shit, piss, and fuck. Now, the Trump administration is taking
censorship to a new Orwellian level by further suppressing science and prohibiting
one of the nation’s top health agencies from using the following words and
phrases: “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” “science-based,”
“vulnerable,” and “entitlement.”
According to The
Washington Post, policy wonks at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) were
given the list of forbidden words and phrases on Thursday and told they are
not allowed to use them in any official documents related to next year’s
budget.
The report also notes that Health and Human Services, which
oversees the CDC, has removed information about the LGBTQ community from its
website. This is all part of the Trump administration’s push to politicize and censor various federal agencies while ignoring science and further dividing the
nation.
The Post notes:
At the CDC, the meeting about the banned words was led by
Alison Kelly, a senior leader in the agency’s Office of Financial Services,
according to the CDC analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
the person was not authorized to speak publicly. Kelly did not say why the
words are being banned, according to the analyst, and told the group that she
was merely relaying the information.
Other CDC officials confirmed the existence of a list of
forbidden words. It’s likely that other parts of HHS are operating under the
same guidelines regarding the use of these words, the analyst said.
Because the CDC is tasked with leading the nation’s efforts
at preventing and controlling disease, the banned words and phrases will affect
the programs that use them, including work in the field of HIV/AIDS and Zika
virus control, among others, the newspaper said.
According to the Post’s
source, an analyst, this is the first time this has happened at the agency, and
fellow analysts were “incredulous” upon hearing the order.
Loren Schechter, director of the Center for Gender
Confirmation surgery at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told HuffPost that
the Trump administration continues to attempt to walk
back civil rights gains made in the country.
“I’m not sure what the ultimate rationale is for doing this
aside from trying to erase certain types of people off the map,” he told
HuffPost.
The reaction on social media to the news was swift and
angry, with Planned Parenthood tweeting that, “It’s clearer than ever: this
administration has disdained women’s health, LGBTQ people, and science since
day one.”
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