WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration demanded Tuesday that dozens of states remove from sex education materials any references to a person’s gender departing from their sex assigned at birth, or lose federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families warned in letters to 40 states, the District of Columbia and several territories that they could lose a total of $81.3 million in remaining federal funds for the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP, if they do not get rid of these references within 60 days.
The policy appears to target any reference to transgender or nonbinary people. For example, in a letter to an adolescent health program specialist at Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services, the federal agency asked that a definition of transgender and related terms be deleted from school curricula.
In a statement shared with States Newsroom, Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said the move was part of Trump’s “all-out fight to erase government recognition of transgender people.”
“Sexual education programs, at their best, are age-appropriate, fact-based and informative at a time when young people need this information to keep themselves healthy,” Powell said. “When they do not acknowledge the existence of trans people they fail in their goal to inform, and cutting this funding denies young people the information they need to make safe, healthy, and informed decisions about their own bodies.”
PREP focuses on preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and targets youth who are experiencing homelessness or in foster care, or reside in rural areas or places with high rates of teen birth, according to the agency.
The states that HHS sent letters to Tuesday are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Latest demand
The demand marks the latest effort from the administration to do away with “gender ideology,” which the administration says includes “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.”
GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted in a fact sheet that “gender ideology” is “an inaccurate term deployed by opponents to undermine and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary people.”
The letters came less than a week after the administration terminated California’s PREP grant after refusing to remove “radical gender ideology” from the education materials.
Failure to comply with this demand, the agency said, could result in the “withholding, suspension, or termination of federal PREP funding.”
“Accountability is coming,” Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement.
Gradison added that the administration “will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”
The effort also comes as the administration continues to crack down on gender-affirming care.
Trump signed earlier executive orders that: restrict access to gender-affirming care for kids; make it the “policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female;” bar openly transgender service members from the U.S. military; and ban trans women from competing on women’s sports teams.
What's in the letter to SC?
FROM
SC DAILY GAZETTE
In its letter to South Carolina, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cited passages from two books purportedly used for sex education in the state — one titled “Making Proud Choices” and the second being a teacher’s manual from One Circle Foundation.
“South Carolina is directed to remove these and all similar language throughout their curricula and program materials,” the letter reads. The state has 60 days to do so or risk losing grant funding.
Most of the passages centered around “gender ideology.”
For example, a note for teachers in the “Making Proud Choices” book suggested they ask students to share their pronouns as “a way of creating a safe space for transgender or gender nonconforming youth.”
“Some transgender youth might have typical pronouns (he/she/his/her/their) or they might request more creative pronouns such as hir or zir,” the teaching note read. “Pronouns don’t always line up with what observers might expect based on a person’s perceived biological sex. The simple act of requesting pronouns sends the message that transgender and gender nonconforming youth are welcome and respected in the group.”
In setting up a teaching exercise, the book also gives definitions for gender, gender identity and gender expression.
It says students participating in the activity will “learn the distinctions between gender identity, gender expression, sex assigned at birth, sexual attraction/orientation and sexual behavior with the help of a visual aid. They apply this learning to understanding their own sexual identity, and discuss how stereotypes, stigma and shame can impact LGBTQ+ individuals.”
Similar definitions are included in the One Circle Foundation material, which the letter says dates to 2015.
In the letter, the national health agency says the purpose of federal grant funding for sexual education is to teach students about abstinence, contraception and sexually transmitted infections.
“The statute includes no mention of gender ideology, which is both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception,” the letter continues. “The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute and any expenditures associated with gender ideology are not allowable.”
Responding to questions about the letter, Gov. Henry McMaster said he’d just seen it and hadn’t had time to review it. But he suggested the content was added by prior Democratic administrations and indicated the state will comply.
“We all knew there’s a lot of goofy stuff in a lot of these educational materials, that have got no business being in there and we ought to get it out,” McMaster told reporters.
“I think the Trump administration has done a big favor going through these materials and finding these things and calling it to everyone’s attention,” he continued.
_SC Daily Gazette reporter Jessica Holdman
Shauneen Miranda is a reporter for States Newsroom’s Washington bureau. An alumna of the University of Maryland, she previously covered breaking news for Axios.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
