Updated with comment from HHS Secretary Kennedy at the end of the article.
White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog group dedicated to ending taxpayer-funded animal experiments, has discovered that millions in taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of Florida are being spent on bizarre experiments to create “transgender” monkeys by pumping male rhesus macaques full of estrogen and then injecting them with mRNA vaccines.
The research, published in Cell Reports earlier this month, says that the experiments are aimed at modeling feminizing hormone therapy (FHT) as used by transgender biological males transitioning to “female.”
According to the paper, “To investigate the immune effects of estrogen within a male biological system, we administered exogenous E2 [estrogen] to male RMs [rhesus monkeys], modeling FHT [feminizing hormone therapy] as prescribed to TGW [transgender women].” Twelve young male monkeys were divided into groups and implanted with slow-release pellets containing either estrogen or a placebo.
The results were grotesque.
“FHT [feminizing hormone therapy] induces physical changes in TGW [transgender women], such as breast development, fat and muscle redistribution, and reduction in facial hair. To determine whether exogenous E2 [estrogen] therapy triggered similar female characteristics in male RMs [rhesus monkeys], we evaluated body alterations in the E2-treated animals. We found that male RMs [rhesus monkeys] treated with E2 [estrogen], but not placebo, developed significantly enlarged nipples similar to those of non-pregnant non-lactating female macaques.”
The estrogen-treated males developed “significantly enlarged nipples similar to those of non-pregnant non-lactating female macaques.” Additionally, “skin in the [estrogen]-treated macaques’ hips and thighs also became increasingly reddish and vascularized in a manifestation that resembled sex skin.” To further disrupt their systems, the researchers “artificially disrupted immune homeostasis through LNP/mRNA vaccinations,” injecting the animals with mRNA-based vaccines.
Images from the study show enlarged nipples and reddish, vascularized skin on the primates.
Tragically, one monkey, identified as rh-12, “developed a severe case of scrotal edema following the first E2 implant that was not successfully controlled by diuretic treatment (furosemide). As a result, this monkey was euthanized.”
Funding for this disturbing project came from four NIH grants totaling over $22 million, three of which are still active, including one issued by Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2020.
The grants include U19AI149646 ($13.9 million to Boston Children’s Hospital for an AAV-mediated functional cure), R01HD103494 ($4 million to the University of Florida for preventing obstetric HIV infection), R01HD102252 ($4.1 million to UF for perinatal HIV prevention), and the expired R21AI157929 ($477,000 to UF specifically for studying immunological effects of FHT in transgender women models).
Additional support was provided by the State of Florida through the HIV/AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases Institute (HEIDI) at the University of Miami, which has been sponsored by the Florida Department of Health under contracts totaling millions of dollars since 2014.
WCW has estimated that “the NIH, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal agencies have wasted at least a quarter-billion tax dollars on transgender animal labs.”
In response, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace introduced the TRANS MICE Act (H.R. 4512) in July, cosponsored by GOP Reps. Paul Gosar, Brandon Gill, and Lauren Boebert. The bill, short for “Transgender Research on Animals Now Stops and Money for Ideological Cruelty Eliminated,” seeks to ban all current and future federal funding for these cruel and unnecessary tests.
The legislation follows President Trump’s criticism of similar spending in his 2025 State of the Union address, which led to the cancellation of at least ten NIH grants, saving millions and sparing thousands of animals.
A group of House Republicans, including Gosar, Boebert, Gill, Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others, have also recently sent a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, demanding a ban on federally funded transgender animal experiments in the FY2026 budget.
The letter states:
Media reports, investigations conducted by the non-profit White Coat Waste Project, and inquiries by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have uncovered how dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants issued under the Biden Administration are funding wasteful and disturbing experiments to create “transfeminine” and “transmasculine” lab animals using invasive surgeries and hormone therapies. The
transgender animals are then wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccines, and subjected to other disturbing procedures.President Trump has personally criticized these experiments on several occasions, and the Department of Government Efficiency has cancelled millions in NIH grants funding transgender animal testing. However, many of these NIH grants funding gender transitions for lab animals are still active.
The proposed language would prohibit funds for “research on vertebrate animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body… to no longer correspond to its biological sex.” They cited dozens of active NIH grants under the Biden administration for these “wasteful and disturbing” experiments, including ones where rats on hormones were tested for drug overdoses.
The letter cites a Gateway Pundit report from March, which covered WCW’s revelations that despite early intervention efforts on the part of the Trump Administration [and its Department of Governmental Efficiency] to revoke, freeze, and eliminate several unorthodox government-sponsored experiments involving transgender hormone testing on animals, nearly 40 federal grants, including one disbursed via the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, were still active.
The FY2026 NIH spending bill is set to be considered on September 2.
Anthony Bellotti, president and founder of WCW, told the Gateway Pundit in a statement:
“White Coat Waste’s shocking new investigation exposes how millions in Fauci-era NIH grants and even Florida state funds are being wasted on disturbing and cruel experiments that create transgender lab monkeys and inject them with mRNA, highlighting why state and federal lawmakers must act now and defund this bizarre monkey business.
Thanks to our viral investigations, shocking Congressional testimony, and relentless campaigning, President Trump himself and Congress are taking action to slash funding for wasteful and cruel experiments that subjected lab animals to invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to crudely mimic gender transitions in children and adults—only to later wound, shock, and inject them with viruses, vaccines, and overdoses of sex-party drugs. Trump’s historic cuts have already saved thousands of animals and millions of taxpayer dollars.But White Coat Waste has uncovered dozens of active NIH, NSF, and VA grants that have also funneled federal funds to similar disturbing transgender animal experiments. Taxpayers should never be forced to bankroll barbaric transgender animal tests, and legislation like the TRANS MICE Act will ensure they won’t be. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!"
WCW has spearheaded numerous campaigns exposing and defunding cruel government-backed tests, saving millions in public funds and sparing thousands of animals.
Founded to combat the over $20 billion annually spent on such experiments, WCW has achieved major victories, including exposing and defunding the Wuhan lab linked to COVID-19 origins, halting Dr. Anthony Fauci's infamous beagle experiments that involved infecting and killing thousands of dogs in painful toxicity tests, and shutting down the USDA's "Kitten Slaughterhouse," the government's largest cat lab where felines were bred, infected with parasites, and euthanized.
The organization also ended cat and dog experiments at the Department of Veterans Affairs, closed the FDA's largest primate lab, resulting in a 63 percent reduction in primate testing, and secured a permanent ban on all Navy-funded dog and cat experiments, terminating a $10 million program of invasive procedures.
Additionally, WCW's investigations led to the NIH closing its in-house beagle laboratories after revelations of brutal experiments pumping bacteria into dogs' lungs and inducing septic shock, marking the end of over 40 years of such practices.
Through relentless advocacy, WCW has influenced groundbreaking legislation and policies, such as the first-ever federal rules allowing lab survivors to be retired and adopted as pets across various agencies, including the NIH, VA, DOD, and FDA, as well as the passage of the first state law banning taxpayer-funded maximum-pain tests on dogs and cats.
UPDATE:
Following the publication of this article, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded and said, “The transgender monkey study that is the subject of this article was an Anthony Fauci grant from 2020 that terminated in 2022. We are working ferociously to end all non-human primate studies except in cases that are vital to saving human life, and for which no other option exists.”
The paper on the study states that it was submitted on March 7, 2025, and accepted for publication on July 30, 2025.
The Gateway Pundit emailed Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Rich Danker and noted that the paper states that the study was conducted with funding from four NIH grants, three of which are still active.
The paper reads: “This work was supported by R21AI157929 (M.A.M.) and U19AI149646 (M.F. and M.A.M.) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and R01HD103494 (M.A.M.) and R01HD102252 (M.A.M.) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.”
HHS confirmed that one of the grants is for caring for and feeding lab animals beyond the study. The other two are being used to study treatments for HIV in children and to prevent infection of children from their mothers when in the womb. It remains unclear why funding for these studies was used for transgender testing, as biological men do not have a womb. The official stated that these tests are "a case of a non-human primate study because no other option exists. These three grants have nothing to do with transgender research."
They did not deny that this study was funded using these grants, which remain active.
The Gateway Pundit followed up by asking, "Can you confirm that none of the funds from these grants are currently funding transgender animal experiments? Are any other NIH grants still funding transgender animal experiments?"
The HHS official stated, "None of the funds from these grants are currently funding transgender animal experiments, and no other NIH grants still fund transgender animal experiments."
The Gateway Pundit noted that this cannot possibly be accurate, as after reviewing federal spending databases, it appears that several NIH grants to Harvard that DOGE cut have now been reinstated due to a court order. This includes a wound healing experiment on mice and rats, in which their testes and ovaries are removed to mimic a transgender person.
"You’re correct about judges ruling against some NIH grant cancellations. We believe the one you asked about was part of the Massachusetts v. Kennedy ruling," the HHS official replied, acknowledging that they had just given incorrect information.
It is unclear if other research involving transgender animals is ongoing and being overlooked.
The Gateway Pundit reached out to Justin Goodman, vice president of WCW, for a response to the statements made by HHS.
Goodman told TGP:
“When you give Fauci-worshipping NIH cronies the keys to the castle, you get what you bargained for, which is endless wasteful spending on Fauci’s animal experiments. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has supported White Coat Waste for years and personally promised me soon after his confirmation that he would end all NIH primate, dog and cat testing.
Instead, Bhattacharya and RFK, Jr. are keeping Fauci’s legacy alive.
White Coat Waste has been exposing all year long how the Bhattacharya-Kleinstreuer NIH and all of its Fauci holdovers are doubling down on animal labs and this is just further proof.
Trump must continue to clean house at NIH. The solution to Bhattacharya-Kleinstreuer waste is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness."
