The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has approved $1,075,660 in grant funding since 2016 to develop and test the effectiveness of a Japanese role-playing game-inspired web app in reducing binge drinking among sexual and gender minority youth, according to a federal grant database. The grant claims LGBTQ youth are “at greater risk for alcohol-related morbidity and mortality across the life-course.”

The NIH pledged to pay $343,340 for the game’s development between April 2016 and May 2019 and $732,320 for studying its effectiveness in binge drinking mitigation between July 2023 and June 2028, according to federal spending records. The agency awarded both grants to the University of Pittsburgh.

The grant defines sexual and gender minority youth as people under 18 who identify as transgender, nonbinary, gay, bisexual or lesbian, among other identities.

The game involves turn-based battles, interacting with non-player characters, exploration and reading journal entries about the harmful effects of bullying, according to a 2019 research paper associated with one of the grants. Gay youths playing the game take on the role of a “superhuman individual” who faces discrimination at school “because of their uniqueness,” according to NIH-funded researchers.

During character creation, the game prompts players to choose six different pronouns.

Researchers claim that children will be encouraged to employ “productive coping strategies” and engage in “help-seeking behaviors” after playing the game.

Another 2021 study associated with the grants tested the efficacy of the game in improving outcomes for sexual and gender minority youth across a broad range of areas and found few significant results. Researchers found little evidence that the game improved help-seeking behaviors, fomented productive coping skills or improved mental health.

The study did, however, find that playing the game was associated with “significantly reduced binge drinking frequency” and reduced “cyberbullying victimization.” Those relationships disappeared after a two-month follow-up period, however.

Authors of the study told readers to be cautious when interpreting their results, saying that their work was “a feasibility study” and that they “were not powered to find significant effects for secondary and tertiary outcomes.”

The research funded by the most recent NIH grant hypothesizes that playing the game will be associated with reduced binge drinking after three, six and 12 months.

Other grants related to queer youth paid out by the Biden administration include over $200,000 from the NIH to fund a LGBTQ mentoring program in June 2023, nearly $700,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intended to prevent transgender boys from getting pregnant in September 2023 and an up to $1.7 million from HHS for LGTTQ youth counseling in July 2023, among other programs.

The NIH did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Target Corp., the popular American department store chain, may be in for another round of lessons in the consequences of annoying its consumers with “Pride” merchandising. With the Christmas season approaching quickly, Target has a special gift for Americans: a woke Christmas.

Shoppers can expect to see “gay Santas and LGBTQ-themed nutcrackers” on Target’s shelves of this season, the Washington Examiner reported.

Erik Thompson, identified as a “Senior LGBTQIA+ Segmentation Strategist & Pride Lead,” announced he would be joining Target in an Instagram post earlier this week. His post appears to have been deleted.

In the post, which decried the devastating consumer boycott over the summer after Target sold creepy LGBTQ-themed merchandise marketed to minors, Thompson promised “Glitter & Hellfire” to “rip that old world to shreds.”

Quite frankly, I’m almost awestruck at the doubling-down amid what has been, unequivocally, the most powerful year for boycotters of absurdly liberal business promotions.

Lest we forget, the conservative backlash against Anheuser-Busch for partnering transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney with its Bud Light brand cost the company at least $15.7 billion. It also resulted in lots of Bud Light sitting unpurchased on thousands of pallets around the country.

Benoit Garbe, Anheuser-Busch’s former U.S. chief marketing officer, was removed Nov. 16 after Bud Light sales refused to bounce back.

Target suffered similarly, with stock losses of nearly $14 billion and sales slumps of 5.4% in stores and 10.5% online in the second quarter. Target’s CFO blamed the losses on the “reaction to our Pride assortment.”

The Walt Disney Co.’s woke strategies met similar reactions, with streaming subscriptions slumping, park attendance abysmal, and movie releases failing box office expectations. Releases of the live-action “The Little Mermaid” and Disney-owned Marvel’s “The Marvels” lost hundreds of millions apiece for the megacorporation.

In September, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that he would endeavor to “quiet the noise” of Disney’s previous political posturing, and since has delayed release of the live-action version of “Snow White” by a full year, following leaks that revealed a serious departure from Disney’s original animated movie from 1937.

Despite crystal-clear indicators that this is the perfect time for companies to quit political posturing and pushing liberal propagandistic efforts, it looks like Target will take the same lessons yet again—and stubbornly so.

The reaction to Luke Gentile’s reporting in the Washington Examiner already looks bad for Target.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., calls it an insult to his constituents and warns of legislative consequences.

“When companies like Target that insult conservatives seek Republicans’ help on Capitol Hill,” Cotton said, “our response will be: ‘I’m sorry that’s happening to you. Best of luck.’”

In a market where traditionally brick-and-mortar stores face increasingly threatening competition from online retailers, Target can’t afford to play so loosely during the holiday season. Anheuser-Busch’s decision to double down after the Mulvaney fiasco cost the beermaker far more than profit margins; such arrogance cost many of its employees their jobs because of the brewery company’s unwillingness to appease the market.

The answer to such inflammatory shenanigans is deceptively simple: Apologize and get back to doing what you do best.

Heckler & Koch, a German arms manufacturer I’m quite fond of, previously employed a social media manager who had begun to use her platform at the brand to lecture H&K fans about sexism.

The backlash began to build following a Twitchy article, with boycotts almost certain. But Heckler & Koch then broke the mold. It fired the woke social media manager and issued a statement on X, formerly Twitter: “H&K does not engage in identity politics. A policy was violated. Changes were made.”

Since that post, H&K sales have risen comfortably. No boycotts, no drop in sales, no problem.

If Target wants a merry Christmas and a happy new year, it only has to stop with the identity politics that have fatigued millions of Americans. We don’t need to hear about Santa’s sex life or which gender the nutcracker is pretending to be.

As one consumer posted on X: “This is so annoying, I just want to shop.”

How executives can miss the forest for the trees in such a monumental blunder is truly beyond me. If Target wants to learn the same lesson again, then by all means we will deliver until the corporation’s leaders get the message.

But it’s suddenly going untraditional, promoting the LGBT lifestyle choices and ideology, and it’s getting pushback from tens of thousands who have signed a petition to boycott.

According to a report in the Washington Stand, the event this year is to feature promotions of two Broadway musicals who have plunged into the extremist agenda: “Shucked” and “& Juliet.” The report explained they both “have key actors who identify as either transgender or non-binary.”

A comment from One Million Moms charged, “Shame on Macy’s for promoting and sponsoring this type of entertainment … It is clear that Macy’s does not have our children’s best interests in mind. Macy’s needs to know that trust must be earned, and once trust is lost, it is difficult to get back.”

At least 36,000 already have pledged, through an OMM petition, to boycott the event this year. The Christian Post said the group was warning the parade “will potentially expose tens of millions of viewers at home to the liberal LGBTQ agenda.”

The report explained, “Justin David Sullivan, who identifies as nonbinary and uses all pronouns, will perform portions from ‘& Juliet,’ which reimagines the Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet if Juliet had not committed suicide over Romeo and ‘[ditched] her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love — her way.’”

And Alex Newell, a man who claims being nonbinary, performs as female Lulu in “Shucked.”

OMM criticized Macy’s “liberal nonsense,” which apparently included trans-identifying pop star Kim Petras’ appearance several years ago.

“We still cannot trust Macy’s Dept. Store,” OMM said, an organization that opposes the degradation of society through events such as MTV Music Awards, which featured “scantily clad performers and sexually suggestive choreography,” the report said, and an LGBT storyline by the 2021 Girl of the Year doll company.

The Stand reported the Macy’s parade “has traditionally been designed for family fun,” but OMM’s determination is that it’s now “liberal nonsense.”

The report noted Kristen Waggoner, chief of the influential Alliance Defending Freedom, added, “Macy’s inclusion of a non-binary transgender character in a parade is just another example of an ideological war that’s being waged on families, and customers are saying they’ve had enough. But it seems that corporate brands that were once trusted just still aren’t getting the message.”

Waggoner told the Stand parents now are beginning to stand up against “woke ideology.”

Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, also told the Stand, “I hope there is a dog show or something else possibly appropriate for family viewing on broadcast television that day.

“It’s important to keep this kind of activity family friendly for the other participants in the parade as well, since high school marching bands, community dance troupes, and other family organizations have traditionally participated in the parade.”

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The problem is that officials at the school district in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, read a statement to students – reportedly about an orchestra teacher attempting a sex-change procedure. But when parents asked to see the statement, the school district came down with a case of the secrets.

The fight is being handled by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. That organization has filed a complaint with an Eau Claire judge challenging the school’s decision to refuse to give parents a copy of the statement made to students.

WILL Associate Counsel Cory Brewer explained, “It’s ridiculous for a school district to refuse to produce a statement that was read out loud to dozens of minor students in several district classrooms. What was told to these kids should be readily accessible to parents.”

“All I am asking is for the school district to provide what as told to my children and their peers in the classroom,” said Leah Buchman, a parent. “As a parent, it’s my responsibility to help my kids understand all that life throws their way, and I do not understand why it has taken the school district so long to update parents.”

The fight erupted after officials, on the second-to-last day of the school year on June 5, 2023, ordered orchestra students at Northstar Middle School to the orchestra room.

“Once there, they found orchestra teacher Jacob Puccio, a school counselor, and the District’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion director, Dang Yang,” WILL reported. “Students were told that Puccio would be undergoing a gender transition from male to female.”

Then, the WILL legal team charges, “A scripted statement was read to multiple classes of elementary and high school music students in the district, including North High School and at least three elementary schools (Sam Davey Elementary, Locust Lane Elementary, and Northwoods Elementary).”

Buchman immediately asked for a copy of the statement but school officials refused. The reason cited was because “an investigation was underway into whether any “employee acted improperly with respect to the June 6 events.”

WILL also asked for the statement, and was refused.

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The HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index sways the practices of hospitals and health care facilities by scoring them on whether they are adopting “LGBTQ+ inclusive patient, visitation and employment policies,” the The Washington Free Beacon highlighted in a recent report.

“Over time and due to a decade of advancement in LGBTQ+ inclusion in daily life, health care facilities have worked harder than ever to increase their work to provide equitable care for the LGBTQ+ community,” the HRC boasts, “and now the [Healthcare Equality Index] survey reflects and promotes these efforts through its scoring criteria.”

The Healthcare Equality Index objectives make it clear that to be scored well, health care institutions must prove they are inclusive of LGBTQ patients, cultivating inclusive workplaces by promoting LGBTQ policies and benefits, and engaging publicly with the LGBTQ community.

Inclusivity in those contexts may mean allowing patients or employees to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity, rather than biological sex, or providing access to “gender-affirming care”—a phrase used by activists to mask the grisly realities of transitioning, including hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries to remove or “create” breasts, remove or “create” a penis, facial feminization, and more.

Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., earned a perfect score from the Healthcare Equality Index in 2022, the Free Beacon reported. The index uses a 100-point scale and awards points for things like displaying LGBT symbols, using patients’ preferred pronouns, asking what someone’s preferred pronouns are, conducting LGBT training sessions approved by the HRC, and more.

The index also punishes hospitals that allow “discriminatory treatment that is in conflict with their non-discrimination policy” and requires hospitals to offer the same treatments to treat gender dysphoria as the hospital offers to treat other medical conditions. That means, as the Free Beacon noted, that if a hospital uses puberty blockers to treat early puberty, it also must allow their use for children who “identify” as transgender.

The HRC prominently features both Pfizer and PhRMA as funders: “The HEI was funded in part by generous grants from Pfizer Inc. and PhRMA,” its website says, referring to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group representing companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal. In a statement, PhRMA spokesman Brian Newell said that PhRMA supports and works with “a wide variety of organizations to help promote affordable access to health care.”

“Our work with HRC has primarily focused on issues impacting patient access and affordability, including for those with HIV, cancer, and other deadly diseases,” Newell added. “We were not involved in the development or release of this specific project.”

PhRMA declined to answer further questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Asked why hospitals across the country would implement the diversity, equity, and inclusion recommendations, David Gortler, a former senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration commissioner and current Ethics and Public Policy Center scholar, told The Daily Signal that “hospitals are no longer run by physicians following scientific evidence anymore; non-physician administrators outrank medical doctors in leadership hierarchy.”

“Hospitals are also too administrator heavy, affecting the practice of medicine,” he explained, noting that academia has the same problem. Gortler pointed to the surprisingly faculty-heavy student-teacher ratios at Yale and Harvard. Many of those people in academia and hospitals nowadays have irrelevant degrees, he suggested, and gain their positions through “H.R. departments, which are also fully saturated with leftists” that “keep hiring DEI people in order to force through unscientific policies.”

“It’s a very pernicious way of altering the practice of medicine,” he said. And the new generations of physicians coming into hospitals are “fully pre-indoctrinated by the aforementioned medical school administrators,” Gortler added.

“These are the next generation of pharmacists, physicians, and nurses, and they’re being taught to specifically ignore fundamentals of biology and data-driven findings,” he emphasized. “They’re not following what science is trying to tell us. That’s a really bad problem.”

Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal that Pfizer and PhRMA have turned to an “ideologically driven interest group to do the dirty work” because federal law prohibits them from “directly pushing their dangerous drugs on kids with gender confusion.” (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

“Pfizer and PhRMA are profiting off the broken lives of children who would have come to accept their bodies if only their natural development weren’t interrupted by their drugs,” Severino said. “Yet they continue to pay HRC to bully doctors and insurers into prescribing and paying for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that are sold with a smile by Pfizer and PhRMA members. These companies have absolutely no shame.”

Jay Richards, director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, similarly told The Daily Signal that “it’s a self-evident conflict of interest for private industry groups and drug companies to fund activist organizations that push ideological ‘medicine’ that creates lifelong patients for the drug companies.”

“But what should we say when those same activist organizations create score cards to reward those same drug companies with good publicity?” he asked rhetorically. “It’s hard to imagine a clearer case of cynicism masquerading as virtue.”

Those familiar with the topic will notice the Healthcare Equality Index’s similarities to the Corporate Equality Index, another Human Rights Campaign initiative thought to be behind Bud Light’s financially disastrous decision to use a biological male who “identifies” as a transgender woman, Dylan Mulvaney, as its public face.

Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, formerly was honored with HRC’s “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” title. But HRC removed Anheuser-Busch from the list and suspended its Corporate Equality Index score over Bud Light’s response to public outrage over its promotion of Mulvaney, a biological man, as a woman.

“We don’t make this decision lightly,” Jay Brown, senior vice president of programs, research, and training at the HRC, told Business Insider, citing the growing number of Republican-led bills protecting children from irreversible sex-change surgeries, banning biological males from women’s private spaces, and prohibiting classroom discussions of sexual topics. The HRC opposes such legislation.

“This is about supporting the current and future workforce, as well as shareholders and consumers,” Brown added. “We’ve seen that when businesses center inclusion in both policy and practice, they come out on top, regardless of baseless, hateful attacks.”

HRC also revealed to Business Insider that it had pressured Anheuser-Busch in late April to release a statement supporting Mulvaney. That move came before the HRC’s subsequent punishment: stripping Anheuser-Busch of its score.

Even Fox News follows the directives of the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, “the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.” The Daily Signal reported this week that for the past several years, Fox has received a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index, and a former Fox News employee also told The Daily Signal that the company frequently mentions its perfect score in employee-training materials.

According to Fox’s company handbook policies on gender transition, Fox News employees are allowed to use restrooms that align with their gender identity, permitted to dress in alignment with their preferred gender, and must also be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns in the workplace.

The HRC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

Article cross-posted from Daily Signal.

On today’s episode of The JD Rucker Show, I talked about this and why it makes me more upset than just about anything happening in this country today. Below is an article by Lily Zhou from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times. Here’s my commentary:

NHS to Tighten Rules on Puberty Blockers, Social Transitioning of Children’s Gender

Puberty blockers will only be given to children under a formal research protocol, new draft guidelines published on Thursday by National Health Service (NHS) England said.

The draft “interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people” also restricted the encouragement of using “social transitioning”—such as using pronouns inconsistent with one’s biological sex and adopting the appearance of the opposite sex.

It is part of NHS England’s transition from having a single gender identity development service (GIDS) centre to multiple regional centres as the existing GIDS at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is set to close by next spring after an official report in February found issues around safety.

The interim review on Tavistock GIDS was carried out by top British paediatrician and past president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Dr. Hilary Cass.

At the time, Cass expressed deep concerns about the affirmative model, concluding that primary and secondary care staff have had to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach.”

Two Phase 1 services will be set up to replace the Tavistock center, one in London and one in the Northwest.

They will operate under the interim service specification until new service specification is formed in 2023/24 after Cass publishes her final report.

NHS England said it will collect feedback on the draft guidelines until Dec. 4.

In the draft (pdf), NHS England clarified that social transition should “only be considered where the approach is necessary for the alleviation of, or prevention of, clinically significant distress or significant  impairment in social functioning and the young person is able to fully comprehend the implications of affirming a social transition.”

NHS England said the change is in line with Cass’s recommendation that “early social transition” should be viewed as an “active intervention” rather than “a neutral act” because “it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning.”

The guidance added that “gender incongruence” in young children, which it defines as “a discrepancy between birth-assigned sex and gender identity,” does not persist into adolescence in most cases.

Regarding hormone treatment, NHS England said it’s developing proposals for prospectively enrolling children and adolescents into a formal research programme “with adequate follow-up into adulthood,” and that it will only commission GnRHa (gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist), a type of puberty blocker, in the context of a formal research protocol.

Four “substantive” changes are included in the draft.

Experts in paediatric medicine, autism, neurodisability, and mental health will be added to the clinical team currently comprised of specialist social workers, family therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, paediatric and adolescent endocrinologists, and clinical nurse practitioners.

The new draft guidance also specified that the clinical lead for the service will be a medical doctor, while current guidance doesn’t make such specification.

Changes are made to the progression through the clinical pathway to make it more “structured,” and GPs and NHS professionals will have to be involved in the referrals to GIDS.

Owen Evans contributed to this report.