A division of the US Department of Health and Human Services told 40 states, five territories and the District of Columbia on Tuesday that they “are now on notice”: Some federally funded sex ed programs need to remove any mention of gender identity or transgender people, even in passing, or risk losing potentially millions of dollars
The letter from the Trump administration says the programs need to remove “gender ideology content” from sex ed materials paid for through the State Personal Responsibility Education Program, which was created by the Affordable Care Act.
“Accountability is coming,” Acting Assistant HHS Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a news release Tuesday. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.”
Begun in 2010, PREP’s ultimate goal is to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, according to the US Family and Youth Services Bureau, an office of the Administration for Children & Families within HHS. Programs are meant to target groups including homeless youth, kids in foster care, people living in rural areas or areas with high teen birth rates, and young people who identify as being from “minority groups (including sexual minorities).”
Individual program details vary by state, but to get funding through the Personal Responsibility Education Program, they must design curricula that teach young people about abstinence and contraception.
The federal government had already approved the curriculum and program language before the funds were granted to the states or territories. But in April, ahead of a “medical accuracy review,” the letters said, the Administration for Children and Families identified program materials that “fall outside of the scope” of PREP: Most of the programs mention gender identity or transgender people in some fashion. According to the new letter, even a mere mention puts federal funds at risk.
In Alabama, for example, the administration pointed to three examples in which “subjects and language are outside the scope of the authorizing statute and all references to it must be removed.”
Two of Alabama’s “Making Proud Choices!” facilitator curricula instruct the teacher to explain why some people use pronouns that don’t align with their appearance.
When people introduce themselves and share their pronouns, the facilitator is instructed to explain, it “is a way of creating a safe space for transgender or gender nonconforming youth.”
“The simple act of requesting pronouns sends the message that transgender and gender nonconforming youth are welcome and respected in the group,” the curricula say.
The Trump administration also says that the curricula’s “Respect Diversity” section needs to change. That section explains that people have different family backgrounds and come from different racial and cultural groups and different living situations.
“Some may identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight. Some may identify as male, female or transgender. All of these differences make us unique. Regardless of how you see yourself, your background, previous relationships or experience, each of you has a place in this group. This will be (a) safe place for everyone,” the Alabama program says.
Making such a sex ed program inclusive of transgender people is, the administration’s letter says, “irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects.” The letter further states that “gender ideology is outside the scope” of such programs and that any expenditure associated with it is not “allowable, reasonable, or allocable.”
Alabama’s Department of Health told CNN that it got the information from HHS on Tuesday morning. “At this time, no educational programs using any of this curriculum are being conducted or planned in the state of Alabama,” the agency said in a statement. “ADPH will continue to promptly review any information received from the federal level and make adjustments as advised.”
The states and territories were given 60 days to remove inclusive language or face the suspension or termination of the federal award.
New York stands to lose the most money – more than $6 million – if it does not comply with the Trump administration demands. Pennsylvania gets more than $4.6 million in PREP funding, Georgia gets more than $4.5 million, Ohio gets more than $4.2 million, and Alabama would be at risk of losing more than $2 million if it doesn’t comply with the changes laid out in the new letter.
The administration separately terminated California’s grant, worth about $12.3 million, last week after HHS said the state “failed to meet its demand to remove gender ideology from all its education materials.”
A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health said in a statement that it has “received the letter and is reviewing the information” and that the department’s mission remains the same. “We will continue to promote and protect health and well-being for all, building on a foundation of health equity.”
A spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Human Services said in an email, “We are reviewing and will immediately instruct the PREP contractors to update the curricula and materials to ensure full compliance as we remove sections required under the prior administration.”
Only 2.8 million people ages 13 and older identify as transgender in the United States, according to the Williams Institute, but the Trump administration has prioritized limiting the community’s rights and even denying its existence.
Federal initiatives have included removing trans people from hate crime surveys, kicking them out of the military and removing any mention of trans people on government websites.
Removing transgender people from sex ed programs will be damaging, said Debra Hauser, president of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit that creates programs to educate young people about their sexual health, who has designed sex ed programs and national standards for decades.
“For young people – any young people – to feel engaged and for them to learn from a program like this, they need to feel reflected and included and affirmed,” Hauser said. “That’s super important for helping young people to actually not just delay sexual initiation and adolescent pregnancy but to also thrive and become sexually healthy adults.”
Hauser notes that the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association all support educating young people about gender identity. Eliminating even the smallest mention of transgender people in these programs is “unconscionable,” she said.
“This is not a decision based on science, this is really about politics, this is about their ideology. It’s not what young people need” Hauser said. “That’s what’s so frustrating and so unconscionable, to take a group of young people that are some of our most vulnerable and to further demonize them, and to get that message from the federal government, it’s absolutely outrageous, and it leaves me speechless.”
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