(LifeSiteNews) — The Trump administration has given an ultimatum to most of the country: Drop all gender ideology content in sex-education material or lose grant funds.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gave 40 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and five territories 60 days to remove sex-ed references to the idea that gender is not biologically determined but a social construct, The Washington Times reported.
The gender ideology content has been included in the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), which is used by most states except Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. Despite implementing PREP, Arkansas was found not to have “problematic gender ideology content” in its curriculum.
“Accountability is coming,” acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement Tuesday. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.”
“The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left,” he added.
The ultimatum comes a week after HHS axed California’s $12.3 million PREP grant following the state’s refusal to delete gender ideology content from its sex-ed material.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) insisted that the state’s “materials are medically accurate.”
“California’s students deserve access to educational information and materials that help them make healthy decisions about sexual activity, including the decision to delay sexual activity, while honoring and respecting their dignity including gender identity,” the CDPH told media outlets on Thursday.
Gradison argued, on the contrary, in his Aug. 21 notice of termination that not only is gender ideology “irrelevant” to teaching abstinence and sex ed it “is not supported by the weight of science, and thus cannot inform the adult preparation subjects that California refers to … ”
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has listed the following as examples of California’s gender-ideology references in its PREP lessons:
- For middle school: “If someone’s sex assigned at birth does not match with their gender identity, or how they feel inside, they might identify as ’transgender.’ For example: if someone is born with female body parts, hormones, and DNA, and inside they feel like a man.”
- For high school: “Remind students that some men are born with female anatomy, some women are born with male anatomy.”
- “Medical transitioning: altering their body by going through hormone therapy (using testosterone or estrogen) or having gender-affirming surgeries. Common surgeries include top surgery (adding or removing breast tissue) and bottom surgery (transforming the genitals).”
Yet, for years LGBT activists have worked to promote “gender fluidity,” the idea that sexual identity is separate from biology and discernible only by personal perception across public education, libraries, health care, and cultural traditions such as school homecomings and athletic competitions.
Critics warn that their efforts have yielded a wide array of harms, both to the physical and mental health of gender-confused individuals themselves as well as to the rights, health, and safety of those who disagree, such as girls and women forced to share intimate facilities with males, female athletes forced to compete against males with natural physical advantages, and individuals forced to affirm false sexual identities in violation of their consciences, scientific fact, and/or their religious beliefs.
President Donald Trump has issued executive orders to deny federal funds to medical and educational entities that promote gender ideology, which so far has gotten numerous major hospital systems to cease “transition” procedures on minors.
