The Trump administration mentioned Friday it has given California 60 days to take away all point out of gender identification from its federally funded sexual training curriculum or the state dangers shedding grant funding.
The directive comes a couple of months after the administration launched a probe into California’s Private Accountability Training Program (PREP) – a nationwide $75 million program that teaches youth and youths about abstinence and contraception to stop being pregnant and sexually transmitted infections. Trump officers mentioned on the time the investigation was essential to make sure the fabric being taught was “age-appropriate and medically accurate,” however LGBTQ advocates fearful the overview would result in the kind of ban introduced this week. This system is overseen by the Administration for Youngsters and Households inside the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers, however varies from state to state.
The company mentioned that after reviewing California’s program supplies, company leaders “uncovered egregious content” surrounding gender identification which have “nothing” to do with this system’s core mission: “to provide youth with medically accurate, fact-based education.”
“The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,” mentioned the company’s appearing assistant secretary Andrew Gradison in a press release. “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.”
In latest months, the Trump administration has threatened to tug federal funding from California a number of occasions over its insurance policies supporting transgender college students. Simply final month, President Donald Trump threatened “large-scale” funding cuts to the state if a Southern California transgender highschool athlete who certified for the state observe and discipline championship was allowed to compete, and his administration has threatened to slash funds for San Jose State College for permitting a transgender volleyball athlete to compete on its girls’s workforce.
The California Division of Public Well being, which oversees the PREP program on the state degree, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday, however beforehand mentioned it might adjust to the company’s investigation.
The state well being division receives $5.8 million underneath this system to show secure intercourse practices, HIV-prevention and abstinence to high-needs populations, together with LGBTQ youth, homeless youth, minorities, migrant farmworkers, incarcerated youth and foster youth in lecture rooms, foster properties, homeless shelters and juvenile justice amenities.
This system additionally teaches youth about forming wholesome relationships, life abilities, bodily and reproductive growth and identification. This system’s curriculum contains language associated to gender identification, sexual orientation and LGBTQ youth.
California’s PREP program has reached over 40,000 youth all through the state and grant funds assist 22 businesses – county well being departments, household useful resource facilities and Deliberate Parenthood – in 20 counties with the best want for intercourse well being training and providers, in response to the California Division of Public Well being.
Separate from the PREP program, California state regulation requires that college students in grades 7-12 obtain sexual well being and HIV prevention training at the very least as soon as in center college and as soon as in highschool, however the state doesn’t have a statewide sexual training curriculum so college districts, college boards and county places of work of training are in command of selecting the course supplies being taught in lecture rooms.
The regulation states the fabric should meet core requirements and be age applicable and medically correct and sexual training in California can also be required to incorporate all genders and sexual orientations, in addition to talk about gender identification and expression.
However these necessities put the state at odds with the present administration. Since he took workplace in January, Trump has signed a number of anti-trans government orders, together with orders that solely acknowledge two sexes, restrict gender-affirming remedies for youth and prohibit transgender gamers from taking part in highschool and school sports activities.
In March, the administration initiated an investigation into California’s training division over a controversial gender notification regulation the state handed final summer season, alleging that it inspired colleges to hide info from dad and mom about their kids’s sexuality.
In a Friday letter to the California Division of Public Well being, the Administration for Youngsters and Households mentioned the company initiated the medical accuracy overview to find out if California’s strategy to organic intercourse in its program supplies was medically correct.
The letter recognized a handful of content material the company deemed inappropriate, together with a center college lesson that mentioned folks figuring out as “transgender or gender queer,” a instructor’s information that outlined gender identification, and a highschool lesson that mentioned gender identification and gender-related subjects like “genderqueer” and social versus medical transitioning.
“If someone’s sex assigned at birth does not match with their gender identity, or how they feel inside, they might identify as ‘transgender,’” one center college lesson mentioned, in response to the company’s letter. “For example: if someone is born with female body parts, hormones, and DNA, and inside they feel like a man.”
Whereas the Trump administration’s letter acknowledged that California’s program supplies have been beforehand permitted by the company underneath the Biden administration, the company mentioned gender ideology is “both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects” required for the federally funded program.
The company gave the state till August 19 to take away all content material associated to gender ideology or danger “additional enforcement,” such because the termination of federal funding. The company mentioned additionally it is investigating program supplies for grant recipients outdoors California to make sure all materials is “free from gender ideology content.”
Initially Printed: June 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM PDT
