
A former DOGE staffer has testified that humanities grants were marked for possible cancellation simply because they mentioned LGBTQ+ people, shedding fresh light on how federal funding decisions were made inside the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The sworn testimony from Nathan Cavanaugh offers a rare look at a process that critics say reduced public humanities work to a keyword search, with projects tied to race, gender and LGBTQ+ communities singled out during a review ordered under President Donald Trump's anti‑DEI directives.