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HHS oversees CDC, an agency with the stated mission to save lives and to protect people from health threats. This effort is described on the CDC website as follows: “To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.”

In part, the �ֲ���ýletter to HHS includes the following:

“The �ֲ���ý Code of Ethics honors diversity and embraces a multicultural approach in support of the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of people within their social and cultural contexts. In addition, the �ֲ���ý has expressly supported the dissemination of accurate information about gender identity to counteract bias that is based in ignorance or unfounded beliefs.”

�ֲ���ýobjects to a ban on the very language that helps government officials communicate appropriately about people who have experienced bias, and also objects to the idea of the possible exclusion of all diverse people under an agency that protects the nation’s health.

Professional counselors are required to use counseling techniques that have a scientific foundation. The �ֲ���ý letter also conveys that �ֲ���ýis alarmed that CDC officials must find euphemisms for the terms “science-based” and “evidence-based”—and by the implication that these are concepts to be avoided at CDC.

The �ֲ���ýrequest asks that these and other allegedly banned words no longer be barred from budget documents—or any other communications at the Centers for Disease Control.