Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon has uncovered another six-figure federal government study that seems far removed from the core functions of government spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is spending over $200,000 on a study involving “gender affirmation” and incarcerated transwomen in San Francisco.

Claiming that incarceration “disproportionally impacts” transwomen—individuals born as males but who self-identify as women—the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is studying how to bring “culturally relevant” interventions to this demographic.

The interventions will focus on HIV, substance abuse, mental health, and “transgender-related medical care.”

“Incarceration is a significant public health issue that disproportionately impacts transgender women, and the cycle of incarceration interacts with high levels of substance use, mental illness, and HIV to produce an elevated burden of disease among this population,” a grant for the project states. …

… The project, which began last September, is scheduled to continue until August 2017. It has cost taxpayers $226,364 so far.

[Lead investigator Jeanne M.] Sevelius has also received $452,389 from the NIH for a separate project entitled “Sheroes,” a “culturally grounded intervention to reduce sexual risk behavior” among transwomen.