After her study on trans athletes lost funding in the U.S., this Canadian researcher is starting over

A Canadian-born researcher is back on her home soil after she says her study on transgender athletes received pushback and lost funding south of the border.

For two decades, Joanna Harper has been studying the ways hormone therapy makes a difference in trans people’s athletic performance.

In early 2024, she started working on a new project at a university in Portland, Ore., where she was researching fitness performance levels in trans youth before and after they started puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

The project was supposed to take five years. It ended in just 18 months. 

“Once [U.S. president] Donald Trump got elected, it was certainly understood by all of us that many things concerning trans people in the U.S. were in danger,” Harper said. 

“They were clearly targeting the transgender community during the campaign, so it was understood that the country was going to become much less friendly for all things transgender if Donald Trump was elected, and that’s exactly what happened.” 

Since taking office in January, Trump has signed several orders impacting trans people and their rights, including one that recognizes only two genders on federal documents and another that bans people biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports events. 

The U.S. government has also cut billions of dollars in funding for scientific research as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures.

Harper’s research project was a collaborative project between four American institutions and received its funding from athletic brand Nike, she said. 

In the spring, Harper said that funding was cut and the project was completely scrapped. 

Nike did not respond to CBC News’ request for comment in time for publication. This story will be updated with any response. 

Although the U.S. government officials did not directly pull the plug on her research, Harper believes it was their attitude against trans people that led to the end of her work. 

“I certainly don’t blame Nike. I blame the people who put political pressure on Nike,” she said. 

Starting over at Western University

With no way to continue the same type of research in the U.S., Harper made her way back to Canada and ended up at her alma mater, Western University in London, Ont.

“There are all kinds of scientists who suddenly found out that they no longer have positions or funding, and they have headed for the exit. In general, it’s a really disappointing turn that this has happened in the United States,” she said.

Western University provost and vice-president of academics Florentine Strzelczyk said in a statement to CBC News that “Western has long prioritized international talent recruitment.” 

In the wake of U.S. funding cuts, the school has also launched a new program that will support post-doctoral students connected to U.S. universities by offering up to $160,000 over the course of four years, she added.

Continued research on trans athletes

Harper first became interested in studying trans athletes when she started her own transition in 2004, and noticed her speed changed.

“I was running 12 per cent slower, and I’m a pretty serious runner,” she said. “I had lost my complete male advantage, if you will, within nine months of hormone therapy.”

Because not enough data was collected in the 18 months of her last project, Harper said she has to start over from complete scratch. 

The exact details of her next study are still being finalized and she needs to collect funding, but Harper said she intends to work with local trans athletes to learn more about their changing athletic capabilities. 

“I don’t know what the future holds for me, but certainly no trans research will be done in the U.S. until at least 2029, and even then, the future is somewhat fraught,” she said.