Despite sequestration, the National Institutes of Health awarded $682,873 to Brigham and Women’s Hospital on July 17 — to study why 75 percent of lesbians are obese. That brings the total amount outlaid for this project up to $2.2 million.

Previous grant amounts were $778,622 in 2011, and $741,378 in 2012, for a grand total of $2,202,873, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

When sequestration began in March, the project’s future was in doubt. An NIH spokesman at that time expected sequester cuts to “delay progress in medical breakthroughs.”

The project is administered by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, whose spokesman also commented on the funding’s uncertain future.

“The NIH is currently assessing the impact on funding due to sequestration,” said Robert Bock, press officer for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in March noted the Free Beacon. “It is not possible to say how this, or any other NIH grant, will be affected in the long term beyond the 90 percent funding levels already in place.”

Well, obese lesbians can now breathe a huge sigh of relief as they reach for that second pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey. Their project is still running at full steam, and some day maybe we’ll learn why lesbians are more often than not obese, whereas gay men are generally fit.

I’m not claiming that the study is totally without merit. I am suggesting, however, that maybe someone’s priorities are a tad out of whack. I wouldn’t regard a loss of income as an opportunity to run down to the local Mercedes dealer to pick out a flashy new SL.

It all comes down to priorities.

We’re studying overweight lesbians while the White House — the people’s house – is closing tours to groups of school children.

At a time when the private sector is struggling, company workforces are getting whacked and employee hours are being slashed, the president proposes a pay hike for federal employees.

But that won’t apply to all federal employees. In July, the administration proposed cutting “danger pay” for members of the U.S. military serving overseas.

And most recently, promised pay hikes for our men and women serving in Afghanistan were reduced, according to CNS News.

Meanwhile, what has our $2.2 million yielded us? A single report, so far, published in January, which found that gay and bisexual males have a “greater desire for toned muscles than completely and mostly heterosexual males,” according to the Free Beacon.

In the following audio, provided courtesy of the Free Beacon, Sean Hannity reacts to the funding for this study.