Moffitt Cancer Center no longer lets its pride go, the June flag

According to an internal email obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, Moffitt Cancer Center will celebrate Pride Month by flying the Rainbow Flag in June.

Furthermore, the nonprofit will not raise a special flag on June 19th to commemorate the holiday commemorating the liberation of enslaved people.

The decision comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold medical research grants from universities and other organizations with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Moffitt received more than $55 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2024, records show. You will receive additional funding through a partnership with the University of South Florida.

Moffitt officials confirmed the decision but refused to give them a reason.

“The Moffitt Cancer Center is committed to our mission to help prevent and treat cancer for all populations,” Moffitt said. “Moffitt strives to deliver quality results for everyone. Every day, our team members show dignity and respect to each other and all the patients walking down our doors. That’s the culture of our organization.”

The decision is a rapid U-turn from a nonprofit that has been flying its pride flag since at least 2017. In 2020, we began research aimed at training oncologists to better understand the needs of LGBTQ+ patients.

Moffitt gave $1,000 to this year’s Tampa Pride event in March, and its employees regularly attended the St. Pete Pride event, which previously included a Moffitt booth promoting the centre.

Other health groups, including Tampa General Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, are one of the sponsors of St. Petersburg Pride, the largest LGBTQ+ festival in the southeast.

An email announcing the decision was sent Wednesday to Moffit, an engagement employee network, by patient experience and relationship manager Laura Bozelman.

“I know this isn’t the outcome that many of us wanted,” she wrote. “The flag has served as a powerful symbol of awareness, inclusion and vision for our community. I share the disappointment this decision brings.”

A considerable number of companies and organizations, including Walmart, IBM, Goldman Sachs and the United Health Group, have either ended diversity, equality and inclusion, or DEI, or ended DEI, in the wake of a series of executive orders from President Donald Trump.

One order is required to prove that federal contractors and grant recipients are not running the “illegal” DEI program. Another person directs the U.S. Attorney General to investigate private sector groups with DEI programs to see if they violate federal anti-discrimination laws.

One page of Moffit’s website contains a transcript of the 2024 podcast with Elizabeth Olson, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equilibrium and Inclusion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University.

Olson and her wife took Olson’s mother, Gloria Olson, to Moffitt in 2023 for cancer treatment. When they arrived for surgery at Tampa Campus at 5:30am on June 1st, the first thing they saw was a Pride Flag flying outside the entrance.

“It felt like all my attention was falling into my mother now,” Olson said on the podcast. “And I didn’t have to spend any energy assessing whether Moffit was a safe space to introduce people to my wife.”

The reporter said the flag would no longer be blown in Moffitt, Olson said it was a shame.

“I recognize that institutions face difficult decisions in a changing political climate, but it is important to remember that performance is not the only symbol of visibility and support for LGBTQ+ patients and families.