16 States Sue HHS To Protect Funding For Sex Ed Programs That Recognize Gender Diversity
The lawsuit alleges HHS is trying to force states to rewrite sexual health curricula to erase entire categories of students.
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Led by Minnesota, Washington, and Oregon, 16 states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration over threats to pull sexual education funding for curricula mentioning diverse gender identities.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oregon, against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., alleges that through “threatening letters and coercive terms and conditions,” HHS is attempting to force states to rewrite sexual health curricula to erase entire categories of students.
“Specifically, HHS seeks to forbid even a passing mention of inclusive gender identity in the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program (SRAE),” the lawsuit reads. “This is the latest attempt from the current administration to target and harm transgender and gender-diverse youth as well as youth with differences in sex development (DSD)…”
The plaintiffs also note that suddenly forcing states to remove medically supported, complete, and culturally appropriate content in the materials for PREP and SRAE is contrary to the laws that Congress adopted. Federal grant program claw-backs to the Plaintiff States could result in a $35 million loss.
Related: New York Among States Ordered To Remove Trans-Inclusive Education Materials
In late August, 40 states plus the District of Columbia and five territories were warned by the Trump Administration to remove references to ‘gender ideology’ or lose funding. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas,” Acting Assistant Health and Human Service Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement at the time. The funds for those regions, combined, totaled over $81 million. Weeks prior to that warning, California had been stripped of $12 million in grants.
These moves are in keeping with the government’s aggressive stance on ‘gender ideology,’ which has included the issuance of Executive Orders that define sex as only male or female – contrary to longstanding scientific understanding of biological complexity, some studies being clearly referenced on the government’s own NIH website.
