🔗 Share this article Trump Administration Demands Exclusion of Transgender Issues from Sex Education Curricula, Multiple States Comply At least eleven jurisdictions and a pair of regions have agreed to a recent demand from the Trump administration to eliminate mentions of gender identity and the presence of transgender and non-binary individuals from a national sexual health program, officials confirmed. The government established a Monday deadline for removing these references, threatening the loss of millions in federal funds. Nearly all of the complying states have GOP-led state legislatures and mostly Republican state leaders. Court Battles and Funding Conflicts An additional sixteen jurisdictions and Washington DC have initiated legal action against the government's requirement, arguing it infringes on legislative power, which created the $75 million sexual health initiative, known as the PREP initiative. All jurisdictions involved in the lawsuit are led by Democratic state executives. In a late Monday court order, a U.S. judge blocked the HHS agency, which manages the program, from withholding financial support to the Democratic states if they do not adhere. “The agency does not demonstrate that the updated requirements are justified, let alone offer any reasonable explanation, other than pretext, for its actions,” wrote the judge, a U.S. district judge in Oregon. “The department offers no proof that it made informed determinations or considered the legal goals.” Program Goals and Government Scrutiny The program aims to inform teenagers on positive interactions and how to avoid unplanned parenthood and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. In April, the federal government required all states and territories obtaining program money to submit a copy of their educational materials to the department and its agency, the Administration for Children and Families, for a “medical accuracy review”. By late summer, the administration dispatched notices to numerous jurisdictions, stating that, during the evaluation, it had found “material in the educational programs that fall outside the scope of the program's legal framework.” Specifically, the administration said it had uncovered evidence of “gender-related concepts,” a term often used by conservative factions to describe the notion that identity is a fluid social construct and that trans and non-binary people exist. Specific Examples of Requested Changes The government directed one state to drop a lesson that said: “Young people may express themselves in ways that differ from their biological sex.” It told another state to eliminate a sentence from a middle school lesson that stated: “People of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to know how to prevent unplanned pregnancy and infections.” Moreover, sex educators in numerous states could no longer be instructed to “demonstrate acceptance and respect for all students, irrespective of personal characteristics, including ethnicity, cultural background, religion, economic status, sexual orientation or gender identity,” based on the letters dispatched to jurisdictions. Government Comments and State Responses “Oversight is imminent,” said Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary of the ACF office, in a statement. “Government money will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.” Multiple states and territories confirmed they would remove the references or had completed the process. These consist of eleven specific states, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. Two other states, the states, reported their Prep curricula never contained the terminology mentioned in the administration’s letters. Impact on Youth and Psychological Well-being Collectively, these jurisdictions are home to over 120,000 trans people between the ages of 13 and 17, based on projections from a research institute. “When the aim is to help adolescents and give them a secure environment, I’m not sure why we are targeting the most vulnerable youth in the population,” said Cindi Huss, who leads an organization that offers health instruction in Tennessee. “When the government says that there’s something wrong with you and the teachers aren’t allowed to tell you things or they have to out you to your parents – when you know that that’s not secure – that’s detrimental to psychological well-being.” Nearly half of trans and non-binary youth contemplated self-harm in the previous twelve months, based on a 2024 survey from a suicide-prevention group. Educational backing for these adolescents is linked to reduced numbers of attempted suicide, the organization discovered. Previous Actions and Ongoing Disputes Previously, the Trump administration ordered a state to cut references to transgender topics from its Prep curriculum. When the jurisdiction declined, the government withdrew its funding, eliminating approximately $12m in government money and stopping health initiatives in schools, juvenile detention facilities and care facilities. The California health department is appealing the termination. To date, it has been unsuccessful in make up for the lost funding. The Trump administration has also informed educators who receive money from additional national programs, the $50 million SRAE program and the $101 million Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP), that they cannot teach about “gender ideology.” An recent judicial ruling blocked the administration from changing TPPP, while the Monday court order prohibits it from changing SRAE in the suing jurisdictions that challenged Prep. The ACF office did not provide a prompt reply to a request for comment.