The College Fix

Professor will ‘co-design and test a culturally relevant intervention to meet these unique needs’ of LGBT caregivers

The “unique needs of sexual and gender minorities” who care for individuals with Alzheimer’s and dementia is the subject of an ongoing, $262,000 project funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Development of a Physical Activity Intervention to Meet the Unique Needs of Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Caregivers” has received $130,000 dollars in funding administered by the National Institute for Aging for the year of 2025 on top of a similar amount for the prior year.

The National Institute on Aging awarded Indiana University Professor Andrew Pickett the amount in Dec. 2024.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has sought to roll back ideological and niche federal grants.

Pickett (pictured) did not respond to two emailed requests for comment in the past month and a half. Listed mentors on the project also did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent in the past two weeks. The College Fix contacted Richard Holden, Nicole Werner, Jason Flatt, and Brea Perry, all members of Pickett’s “mentorship team,” with a request for more information.

The “public health relevance statement” of the grant provides further information on the plan for the project.

The research “seeks first to explore unique barriers and facilitators to regular [physical activity] that LGBT caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s and related diseases face.”

“This research will provide timely understanding of unique, intersecting needs of” this group of caregivers “and inform creation of a culturally relevant, feasible, and sustainable [physical activity] intervention designed to meet specific challenges faced by this vulnerable population.”

However, the research director for a medical reform group criticized the project.

Ian Kingsbury, the director of research at Do No Harm, considers it “scandalous” that this project has received federal funding.

“Sexual minority caretakers of patients with Alzheimer’s are not unique in terms of their abilities or benefits vis-a-vis physical exercise,” Kingsbury told The Fix via an emailed statement. “It’s scandalous that the NIH directs taxpayer money to ‘research that is overtly political rather than medical.”

Since Trump took office, almost $3 million has gone to transgender research alone, as The Fix previously reported.

Previous reporting by The Fix has suggested that these projects are still receiving funds because of a gap in the wording of the Trump administration’s executive order which only bans federal funding for projects “promoting” gender ideology– not research that studies these topics more broadly.

According to Kingsbury, another reason federal funds keep flowing to projects like this is because the “NIH is ideologically captured and has largely abandoned its foundational goals in the pursuit of woke political objectives.”

“If progressive donors or organizations want to fund this type of stuff, fine,” Kingsbury told The Fix. “But there is no reason for taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Pickett, the Indiana University professor working on this project, regularly studies LGBT topics as well as weight issues, according to his Google Scholar page.

Past academic papers include “Trans prejudice in sport” and “Weight Stigma, Body-Inclusive Yoga, and a Model of Physical Activity for All.”

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Indiana University Professor Andrew Pickett; Indiana University

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