The Trump administration on Tuesday directed 40 states, five territories and the District of Columbia to delete all mention of gender ideology from their federally funded sex-education material or risk losing millions in grants.
The Department of Health and Human Services gave the areas 60 days to remove the references under the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program, a week after canceling California’s grant.
“This action reflects the Trump Administration’s ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology,” the department said in a statement.
The grant funding across the areas comes to $81.3 million.
“Accountability is coming,” acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement Tuesday. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”
Last week, the department’s Administration for Children and Families terminated California’s PREP grant, worth $12.3 million, after state officials refused to strike references to gender ideology from their material.
In its Aug. 19 letter, the California Department of Public Health refused to make the modifications, arguing that the content had already been approved by the ACF and that the state’s “materials are medically accurate.”
“California’s students deserve access to educational information and materials that help them make healthy decisions about sexual activity, including the decision to delay sexual activity, while honoring and respecting their dignity including gender identity,” said the CDPH in a Thursday statement to media outlets.
Mr. Gradison said the federal “statute includes no mention of gender ideology, which is both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects.”
“Furthermore, gender ideology is not supported by the weight of science, and thus cannot inform the adult preparation subjects that California refers to such as healthy relationships, healthy attitudes and values about adolescent growth and development, or healthy life skills,” he said in his Aug. 21 notice of termination.
The ACF said examples of California’s references to gender ideology in its PREP lessons include:
· For middle school: “If someone’s sex assigned at birth does not match with their gender identity, or how they feel inside, they might identify as ’transgender.’ For example: if someone is born with female body parts, hormones, and DNA, and inside they feel like a man.”
· For high school: “Remind students that some men are born with female anatomy, some women are born with male anatomy.”
· For high school: “Medical transitioning: altering their body by going through hormone therapy (using testosterone or estrogen) or having gender-affirming surgeries. Common surgeries include top surgery (adding or removing breast tissue) and bottom surgery (transforming the genitals).”
The PREP program was approved by Congress in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act to educate adolescents on “both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,” as well as “adult preparation subjects.”
Those listed subjects are “healthy relationships,” “adolescent development,” “financial literacy,” “parent-child communication,” “educational and career success,” and “healthy life skills.”
The states receiving the letters 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.
The territories are Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
