'This is probably illegal': CDC quietly erases mpox guidance tied to Pride events

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has quietly removed a federal public health webpage offering explicit safer-sex and harm reduction guidance for mpox. The deletion confirms fears among LGBTQ+ health experts that the Trump administration is once again illegally scrubbing medically vetted information tied to queer communities from government websites.As of Thursday evening, the CDC page titled “Safer Sex, Social Gatherings, and Monkeypox” returned a notification that reads, “The page you're looking for was not found.” The Advocate reviewed an archived version of the webpage preserved by the Wayback Machine, most recently captured on May 11, which featured a candid piece of federal health communication offering guidance on navigating Pride events, sex clubs, festivals, hookups, parties, and intimate contact during an infectious disease outbreak.The page warned that mpox could spread through “close, sexual, or intimate contact” and acknowledged realities federal health agencies have often historically struggled to discuss plainly, including anonymous sex, commercial sex venues, multiple partners, and the practical ways people reduce risk in the real world.Related: What public health experts want you to know about the severe mpox strain appearing in the U.S.It advised readers to get vaccinated, avoid sexual contact when symptomatic, wash fabrics and sex toys, exchange contact information with partners when possible, and reduce skin-to-skin exposure in high-contact settings. It also specifically referenced “back rooms, saunas, sex clubs, or private and public sex parties” as environments where transmission risk could increase.The Advocate also reviewed several CDC educational materials previously linked from the now-deleted webpage. Although the landing page itself has been removed, some of the underlying PDFs remain accessible through CDC media servers.Those materials in