The News

 This week, the Trump administration instructed all federal agencies to remove information from their websites pertaining to "gender ideology." On Friday, a flurry of reports indicated that exact thing was happening.

In a Wednesday memo, Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell instructed agencies to comply by Friday at 5 p.m. ET with an executive order that says its aim is "defending women from gender ideology extremism."

That memo laid out "steps to end federal funding of gender ideology." Among those was the instruction to "Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology."

As of late Friday, attempting to reach the Census Bureau's 2020 Results page returned a message that that part of the site was down for maintenance. Similarly, its page on sexual orientation and gender identity was down, along with other pages including information on those topics.

The examples proliferated on social media, with academics, journalists and activists noting that basic information had disappeared from government websites. The CDC's HIV surveillance data disappeared, as noted by Aaron Richterman, a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Similarly, the CDC's Youth Risk Survey data is no longer accessible, which KFF's Cynthia Cox pointed out.

"OPM sent guidance to agencies to remove gender ideology-related content from their websites by 5 pm today as part of the efforts to defend women and uphold the truth of biological sex against the radical claims of gender activists," OPM communications director McLaurine Pinover said in a statement Friday evening. "This may have been misinterpreted to mean we would shut down government websites who weren't able to comply but that is not the plan for continuing to implement this important effort."

While "gender ideology" is sharply defined, Trump and other transgender rights opponents have used the phrase to argue against the idea that people can identify with a gender that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Indeed, the executive order calls it a "false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa."

Many who support transgender rights oppose using the phrase "gender ideology," as it implies that being transgender is a belief system, as opposed to an identity. Nearly 2 million Americans identify as trans or transgender, according to 2023 polling from KFF and Washington Post.

This week's "gender ideology" memo wasn't the only order from the Trump administration to remove information from websites. In another memo implementing an executive order aimed at "ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs," Ezell instructed agencies to "Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices." DEIA stands for "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility" in this order.

 A 5-year-old boy is dead after a hyperbaric chamber he was inside exploded at a medical facility Friday in Troy, Michigan, police and fire officials said. 

The unidentified victim was inside the chamber, a pressurized container that contains 100% oxygen, when it suddenly exploded just before 8 a.m. at The Oxford Center, located at 165 Kirts Blvd.

The explosion caused a fire to break out inside the chamber's room. It is unclear what sparked the explosion and the subsequent fire did not spread to the rest of the facility, police and fire officials said.

The scene outside The Oxford Center on Friday (Fox 2 Detroit)

Police and fire officials said that the boy, from Royal Oak, was dead inside the chamber when they arrived on the scene. 

His mother, who was inside the room, suffered injuries to her arm, police said. 

Troy Police Lt. Ben Hancock described the explosion as a "very sad incident" and said that such an incident is rare.

A hyperbaric chamber at General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pictured in 2006. A similar one is used at The Oxford Center. (REUTERS/Allegheny General Hospital/Handout)

"We’re not familiar with responding to one of these recently," Hancock said. "Again, [a] horrible, tragic incident, that we don't want to ever respond to."

A hyperbaric chamber contains 100% oxygen, which is three to five times the amount of oxygen compared to a normal room, the officials said. 

"The presence of such a high amount of oxygen in a pressurized environment can make it extremely combustible," Lt. Keith Young from the Troy Fire Department said. "Our initial research shows that this is not a common incident, and the scene remains under active investigation."

It is unclear what condition the boy had that necessitated him to be inside the chamber, which is used to provide hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). A typical chamber holds one person and requires the patient to lie down in a tube-shaped device that looks like an MRI machine and breathe oxygen.

HBOY is well known for treating scuba and deep-sea divers affected by the rapid change in pressure around them, according to the FDA. The devices are also used to treat a variety of other health problems, including carbon monoxide poisoning, diabetic foot ulcers, cerebral palsy, anemia, infection of the skin and bone, as well as vision loss.

Such devices require FDA clearance to ensure that they are approved to be used as intended and are safe and effective.

The scene outside The Oxford Center on Friday (Fox 2 Detroit)

In a statement to the Detroit Free Press, The Oxford Center spokesman Andrew Kistner wrote that the cause of the explosion is unknown.

"This morning, a fire started inside of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The child being treated in that chamber did not survive and the child’s mother was injured," the statement reads.