🔗 Share this article

At least 11 states and two territories have agreed to a recent directive from the Trump administration to remove mentions of gender identity and the presence of trans and non-binary people from a federal sex education initiative, authorities confirmed.

The government established a recent cutoff for removing these references, threatening the loss of substantial government funding. Almost every of the agreeing jurisdictions have Republican-controlled state legislatures and predominantly Republican state leaders.

Court Battles and Funding Conflicts

Sixteen other states and the nation's capital have initiated legal action challenging the government's requirement, arguing it infringes on legislative power, which established the $75m sex education program, known as the Personal Responsibility Education Program (Prep).

All states participating in the legal challenge are led by Democrat governors.

In a recent court order, a federal judge prevented the HHS agency, which oversees the program, from withholding funding to the Democratic states if they do not adhere.

“The agency does not demonstrate that the new grant conditions are reasonable, let alone offer any valid reason, other than pretext, for its decisions,” wrote Ann Aiken, a U.S. district judge in Oregon. “The department offers no proof that it made factual findings or took into account the statutory objectives.”

Program Goals and Federal Review

Prep aims to inform adolescents on healthy relationships and how to avoid unplanned parenthood and the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

In the spring, the federal government demanded all jurisdictions receiving program money to provide a version of their curriculum to the department and its agency, the Administration for Children and Families, for a health content assessment.

Four months later, the administration sent letters to numerous jurisdictions, informing them that, during the review, it had found “material in the curricula that deviate from the purview of the program's legal framework.”

In particular, the government claimed it had uncovered evidence of “gender-related concepts,” a term often used by conservative factions to refer to the notion that gender is a fluid social construct and that transgender individuals exist.

Specific Examples of Required Alterations

The government directed Illinois to drop a curriculum that said: “Adolescents may identify in ways that don’t conform with their assigned gender.”

It instructed North Carolina to eliminate a sentence from a educational module that stated: “Individuals regardless of identity need to know how to prevent pregnancy and STDs.”

Moreover, health instructors in numerous states could no longer be instructed to “show tolerance and understanding for all participants, regardless of personal characteristics, including ethnicity, heritage, faith, economic status, sexual orientation or identity,” based on the letters dispatched to states.

Government Comments and State Responses

“Oversight is imminent,” declared Andrew Gradison, interim leader of the ACF office, in a statement. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or promote harmful political doctrines.”

Multiple jurisdictions and territories confirmed they would remove the references or had completed the process. These include eleven specific states, as well as the two territories.

Another pair of jurisdictions, the states, reported their educational programs never included the language mentioned in the administration’s letters.

Effects on Adolescents and Mental Health

Collectively, these states are home to over 120k transgender individuals aged 13 to 17, based on estimates from a university department.

“If our goal is to support youth and give them a safe space, I’m not sure why we are stomping on the most vulnerable youth in the community,” said Cindi Huss, who heads an organization that provides sex education in Tennessee.

“If authorities state that there’s something wrong with you and the teachers aren’t allowed to provide information or they have to disclose your identity to family – when you know that that’s not safe – that’s horrible for mental health.”

Almost 50% of trans and non-binary youth contemplated self-harm in the previous twelve months, based on a 2024 survey from a suicide-prevention group. School support for these youths is associated with reduced numbers of attempted suicide, the organization found.

Earlier Incidents and Ongoing Disputes

Previously, the federal government instructed California to cut mentions to transgender topics from its educational program.

When the Democratic-led state refused, the administration withdrew its Prep grant, cutting about $12 million in federal funding and stopping health initiatives in schools, youth centers and group homes for foster children.

The California health department is challenging the withdrawal. To date, it has been unable to make up for the lost funding.

The Trump administration has also informed instructors who receive money from two other federal sex education initiatives, the $50m SRAE program and the $101m Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP), that they cannot teach about “gender-related concepts.”

An early October court order prevented the administration from altering TPPP, while the Monday court order stops it from changing the other program in the suing jurisdictions that challenged the initiative.

The Administration for Children and Families did not immediately respond to a inquiry.