JANUARY 22, 2025

The Day The War On Federal DEI Begins

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal….”

Two days ago I published: JANUARY 20, 2025; CDC Has Yet To Figure Things Out. Late (for those of us who are not Donald Trump) on that same day the President issued this Executive Order:

“ENDING RADICAL AND WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT DEI PROGRAMS

AND

PREFERENCING

EXECUTIVE ORDER

January 20, 2025”

Last night at the direction of the President, the Office of Personnel Management issued this memorandum:

TO: Heads and Acting Heads of Departments and Agencies

FROM: Charles Ezell, Acting Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management

DATE: January 21, 2025

RE: Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders

Pursuant to its authority under 5 U.S.C. § 1103(a)(1) and (a)(5), the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) is providing the following initial guidance to agencies regarding the President’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions, which repeals Executive Order 14035, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.

Steps to Close Agency DEIA Offices: In light of the above Executive Orders, each should take prompt actions regarding the offices and agency sub-units focusing exclusively on DEIA initiatives and programs (the “DEIA offices”). Specifically, agency heads should take the following steps:

1. No later than 5:00 pm EST on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

a. Send an agency-wide notice to employees informing them of the closure and asking employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language a template agency-wide notice is attached as Appendix 1.

b. Send a notification to all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.1 A template employee letter is attached as Appendix 2.

c. Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices.

d. Withdraw any final or pending documents, directives, orders, materials, and equity plans issued by the agency in response to now-repealed Executive Order 14035, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) in the Federal Workforce (June 25, 2021).

e. Cancel any DEIA-related trainings, and terminate any DEIA-related contractors.

The question for CDC is this: Where will you begin?

It is good a question for those who will be tasked with removing DEI from CDC because CDC doesn’t have a singular DEI office where one can walk through a door for an appointment with the non-existent Director of DEI. Instead CDC has scattered the functional components throughout the agency.

Functionally it means that 44 year old Mandy Krauthamer Cohen, MD, Director, CDC who is being replaced is/was in charge of CDC’s DEI program — the buck stops there. Though Dr. Cohen is being replaced, Dr. Cohen’s minions are not and she had lots and lots of minions who are all well hidden inside 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, Georgia.

So who is next in line who does incoming Director Weldon turn to? Good question. Best available answer? A whole lot of people in all kinds of positions with the cover of plausible deniability. In short CDC has immunized itself with the Nuremberg Defense: ‘We were just following orders.’

Nevertheless we can get at those who have been essential in turning the nation’s public health into a three ring circus of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion none of it based on science and all of it based on “feelings”. Let’s start by asking CDC about DEI. This a grab of their search window on the CDC.gov home page where I simply entered "dei”.

And here is the first result on the first page from what are pages out of pages and pages of results:

Complete Republication: Recent Updates to CSE Recommendations for Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications: 7 Ways to Integrate Diversity,…

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal established by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. PCD provides an open exchange of information and knowledge among researchers,…Read more

The very first result is a paper by the Editor In-Chief of the in-house journal, Preventing Chronic Disease and it is instructing investigators how to incorporate DEI into their manuscripts. The article, “…7 ways to include diversity, equity, and inclusion….” was written by Leonard Jack, Jr, PhD, MSc, Editor in Chief, Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, Office of Medicine and Science, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This single article by Dr. Jack solidifies his substantial role in promoting DEI at CDC.

So far that’s just two people, CDC Director Cohen and Leonard Jack, Editor in chief of Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD): Public Health Research. As Editor in Chief Leonard Jack decides what article’s will published in PCD.

CDC also has and Office of Health Equity (OHE) and according to Grok ( X’s AI utility) OHE is responsible for “…ensuring that health services and policies are equitable, which inherently involves DEI principles. The OHE collaborates across different CDC centers to integrate health equity into public health practice and policy.” Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA, is the Acting Director for CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE).

I encourage you to take a quick tour of the Office of Health Equity where you can learn about health disparities caused by a host of “social determinants”. Clearly Leandris Liburd should be on OPM’s paid administrative leave list.

While “health equity” is a fascinating topic I want to get to what I believe is the most egregious expression of DEI at CDC; LGBTQ public health issues and children. Return to the CDC homepage, enter LGBTQ into the search window and the VERY first thing that pops up is this:

And here is where clicking on “Read more” takes you:

The Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH)

Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth

AT A GLANCE

Youth with LGBTQ+ identities include those with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning identities. They are more likely than cisgender and heterosexual youth to experience violence at school and have lower levels of school connectedness.

Several practices can improve the health, safety, and school connectedness for LGBTQ+ youth. Among them are conducting professional development with school staff, providing inclusive school programs, and developing inclusive school and district policies.

Inclusive practices can promote the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth and foster school connectedness. Inclusive practices have also been shown to benefit the whole school environment.

And here is the Director of DASH:

Kathleen Ethier, PhD

According to CDC, Dr. Ethier earned her PhD in social psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. WebMD defines social psychology as “…the study of your mind and behavior with other people. Social psychology looks at your personality, interpersonal relationships, and group behavior.”

Wikipedia offers this definition: Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Clearly Dr. Ethier and her immediate staff and perhaps her entire Division should be subject to OPM’s Administrative Leave Order.

All of this, every word I have written this morning barely scratches the surface of the anthill of DEI at CDC. It would make perfect sense to place the entire agency on Administrative leave until it can all be sorted out and unwound.

I really don’t want to single out Dr. Etheir by showing only her photo so here are the others.

Mandy Cohen, MD, (former) Director CDC:

Liandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA Director, Office of Health Equity

Leonard Jack, Jr. PhD, MSc, Editor in Chief, Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, Office of Medicine and Science, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

I do not know these people other than what I have read which is this: they are all extraordinarily bright and ambitious people who are part of the upper echelon of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and they all apparently believe that promoting transgenderism in schools is just fine by them. I know this because they are among the group who led the charge.

I don’t know anything about those people but I do know this. The man pictured above, Dr. Dave Weldon, is going to need a lot of help and he can’t rely on any of the people I have just written about OR their staff or any other person at CDC who was just following orders.

I suggest that Dr. Weldon create a temporary office of DEI Removal and staff with seasoned public health policy and IT staff with the mission of scrubbing DEI from all aspects of CDC. This may cause publications to be edited or even retracted. It is a job for serious people with a righteous sense of purpose.

President Trump’s Executive Order just gets the ball on the court. This is going to be a tough fight and he needs men and women who are tough enough to see it to victory.

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:10-16

Union, Kentucky

22 January 2025
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