Editor’s note: This story contains mentions of suicide and descriptions of abuse against children that some readers may find disturbing.

U.S. representative Ted Lieu condemned anti-LGBTQ+ policies at a Wednesday event at La Kretz Garden Pavilion.

The UCLA Center for LQBTQ Advocacy, Research & Health hosted the third-annual Inclusive Excellence In Research Symposium, featuring Lieu, the U.S. representative whose district includes UCLA and Westwood, and Ayako Miyashita Ochoa, an adjunct associate professor at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, as guest speakers.

Jack Feng, the external vice president of the Graduate Students Association, said the speakers were chosen to highlight issues impacting LGBTQ+ communities at the local, state and federal levels and that he collaborated with UCLA’s Federal Government Relations team to recruit them.

“It has been a profoundly meaningful experience for me to organize this event and make it happen for our community and students,” Feng said. “It is so important to continue to stay engaged as a community, but also engage with our stakeholders.”

President Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting transgender rights since taking office and has threatened to withhold funding from medical providers who provide gender-affirming care for minors. The National Institutes of Health eliminated at least $125 million in funding for LGBTQ+ research funding last spring, according to NBC.

The Trump administration signed a February 2025 executive order banning transgender women from participating on women’s sports teams at colleges receiving federal funding. It also alleged that UCLA allowed “men to participate in women’s sports” – as well as antisemitism and use of affirmative action – when freezing $584 million of the university’s federal research funding. Chancellor Julio Frenk denied the federal government’s allegations in a January interview with the Bruin.

The Trump administration did not respond in time to a request for a comment on its grant cuts or policies impacting transgender Americans.

Miyashita Ochoa said she believes state policies expanding HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention resources are a source of hope despite the Trump administration’s attacks on research and health care. State policies that maintain medical record confidentiality for vulnerable communities, such as undocumented immigrants or those seeking gender-affirming care, are also important, she added.

“At the end of the day, we have a job to do, and our job … is to make sure that the research we do that comes from our community heads back to our community and is owned by our community,” Miyashita Ochoa said.

The Trump administration’s cuts to research funding have forced her and her team to change the way they approach public health research, she said. She added that she now fears using certain words – such as equity, disparities and racism – in her research, despite the fact they are central to her work.

“I have to believe that, at its core, research is about generating evidence,” she said. “It’s about documenting evidence. It’s about informing our local response, and it’s about amplifying community voices. And that means looking to community and working with community to identify the solutions.”

Lieu said in a speech that he supports banning conversion therapy – a scientifically discredited practice that attempts to convert LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or change their gender identity to match the sex they were assigned at birth. Lieu also condemned the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Lieu said he authored the first California State law in 2012, when he was a state representative, to ban conversion therapy after he learned of the suicide of Kirk Murphy, a Californian who was placed in conversion therapy at UCLA when he was a child.

Murphy was a participant in a 1970s government-funded program aimed at reversing feminine behavior in men through physical punishment, social isolation and psychological consultations, according to CNN. Murphy later died by suicide at the age of 38, decades after the completion of the study.

“There is no evidence for conversion therapy,” he said. “It’s basically fraud. It’s based on crackpot science. And so we authored this law, which essentially says if you’re a licensed medical provider in California, you cannot engage in sexual orientation-change efforts.”

Lieu added that he disagreed with the Supreme Court’s March 31 ruling to overturn Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. The Supreme Court’s majority opinion argued that the ban violated the First Amendment.

“We believe that (banning conversion therapy) would actually withstand judicial scrutiny for the same reason that psychiatrists, for example, can be sued for medical malpractice,” Lieu said. “If a psychiatrist told you, ‘I know you’re depressed, and the best way to solve that is you go drink three beers a night,’ well, that’s a viewpoint, but they can also be sued if they say that for medical malpractice.”

Lieu added that he supports several legislative efforts to strengthen protections for the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Respect for Marriage Act, signed into law in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden, and the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act – which aims to outlaw conversion therapy federally.

Lieu added that he believes the Trump administration is attempting to remove protections from the LGBTQ+ community.

“The good thing is, a new president can reverse every executive order of this president,” Lieu said. “But in the meantime, things are not going to be good, because you’ve got a current administration that’s very hostile to the LGBTQ+ community.”

Miyashita Ochoa said in an interview that she believes that UCLA has a responsibility to support its transgender community members, as well as ensure that its researchers can speak freely about issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community.

Santiago Cardenas, a doctoral student in biomathematics, said he enjoyed that people from a variety of backgrounds attended the event.

“It was nice to see that people are thinking about how the law intersects with LGBTQ+ health, because it’s unfortunately very politicized,” Cardenas added.

Cardenas said he was happy to see people were fighting for LGBTQ+ health at the state and federal levels.

Lieu added in an interview that he encourages students to speak publicly in support of LGBTQ+ rights.

“I hope (UCLA Students) take to heart Abraham Lincoln’s words that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail,” Lieu said. “Without it, nothing can succeed. And I want the students at UCLA to understand their power to change public settings.”