Trump Administration Orders California To Strip Transgender Wording From Sex Education Program

The administration says it won’t ‘tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children.’

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
A transgender rights supporter takes part in a rally outside of the Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in a case on transgender health rights on December 04, 2024 at Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Trump administration is ordering California to remove references to transgender identity from a sex education program, calling it “gender ideology.” The state could lose federal funding for the program if it doesn’t comply.

The Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter Friday giving the state 60 days to remove the wording from the Personal Responsibility Education Program. The program aims to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

“This action reinforces the Trump Administration’s commitment to ensuring that federally funded programs are grounded in gold-standard, evidence-based science — not ideological agendas — and holding states accountable to PREP’s core mission: to provide youth with medically accurate, fact-based education,” the ACF says in a release.

The department says it uncovered “egregious content” teaching young students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex and that boys can identify as girls. The letter gives an example from a middle school lesson that states: “As many of you know, there are also people who don’t identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer. This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently.”

Another example states: “Transgender refers to a person’s gender identity. Gender identity is your inner sense of your gender — Do you feel like a guy? Do you feel like a girl? Do you feel like something different than a guy or a girl? Often gender identity matches a person’s body — someone with a girl’s body feels like a girl on the inside or someone with a boy’s body feels like a boy on the inside — but not always. Transgender is when a person’s inner feelings about gender identity don’t match the body.”

“The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,” Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison says. “The disturbing gender ideology content in California’s PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools.”

California is required to remove all gender ideology references from its PREP curricula, program materials, and any other aspects of its program within 60 days and provide a copy of the new materials for federal approval.

California has also run afoul of the Trump administration on other transgender issues. Earlier this month the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into whether California’s policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports violate federal civil rights laws.

A California law permits male-to-female transgender students to participate in women’s sports. The probe will examine whether the policy, codified in the California Education Code, contravenes Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex at educational institutions receiving federal funding.


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