🔗 Share this article

No fewer than eleven jurisdictions and two territories have agreed to a new directive from the federal government to eliminate mentions of transgender issues and the existence of trans and non-binary people from a national sexual health program, officials stated.

The government set a Monday deadline for stripping these references, threatening the loss of millions in federal funds. Nearly all of the agreeing jurisdictions have GOP-led state legislatures and mostly GOP state leaders.

Court Battles and Funding Disputes

Sixteen other states and Washington DC have filed a lawsuit challenging the government's requirement, arguing it infringes on legislative power, which established the $75 million sexual health initiative, known as the PREP initiative.

All jurisdictions involved in the legal challenge are governed by Democrat state executives.

In a recent court order, a U.S. judge prevented the HHS agency, which oversees Prep, from cutting funding to the Democratic states if they refuse to comply.

“The agency does not demonstrate that the updated requirements are justified, let alone offer any reasonable explanation, other than an excuse, for its decisions,” stated the judge, a federal jurist in the state. “The department offers no proof that it made factual findings or took into account the statutory objectives.”

Initiative Aims and Federal Review

Prep seeks to inform teenagers on healthy relationships and how to prevent pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections.

In April, the Trump administration demanded all states and territories obtaining Prep funds to submit a version of their curriculum to HHS and its agency, the ACF office, for a “medical accuracy review”.

By late summer, the administration sent letters to numerous jurisdictions, stating that, during the review, it had discovered “content in the educational programs that fall outside the purview of Prep’s authorizing statute.”

In particular, the government claimed it had uncovered evidence of “gender-related concepts,” a phrase often used by rightwing factions to describe the notion that identity is a changeable cultural concept and that trans and non-binary people exist.

Specific Examples of Requested Changes

The government instructed one state to drop a lesson that stated: “Adolescents may express themselves in ways that don’t conform with their assigned gender.”

It instructed another state to eliminate a line from a middle school lesson that stated: “People of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to know how to avoid pregnancy and STDs.”

Moreover, sex educators in numerous states could no longer be told to “demonstrate acceptance and respect for all participants, regardless of individual traits, including race, cultural background, faith, social class, orientation or gender identity,” based on the letters sent to jurisdictions.

Official Statements and Jurisdictional Reactions

“Oversight is imminent,” said a federal official, interim leader of the ACF office, in a statement. “Government money will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.”

Multiple jurisdictions and territories confirmed they would eliminate the content or had completed the process. These consist of Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Two other states, the states, reported their educational programs never contained the language referenced in the administration’s letters.

Impact on Youth and Mental Health

Collectively, these jurisdictions are inhabited by over 120k trans people between the ages of 13 and 17, based on estimates from a university department.

“If our goal is to help adolescents and give them a secure environment, I’m not sure why we are stomping on the most vulnerable youth in the population,” commented an advocate, who leads an organization that provides sex education in one state.

“If authorities state that there’s something wrong with you and the educators aren’t allowed to tell you things or they have to disclose your identity to family – when you know that that’s not safe – that’s detrimental to psychological well-being.”

Nearly half of transgender adolescents contemplated self-harm in the past year, based on a 2024 survey from a suicide-prevention group. Educational backing for these youths is associated with lower rates of attempted suicide, the group discovered.

Previous Actions and Ongoing Disputes

Previously, the Trump administration instructed California to remove mentions to gender identity from its educational program.

When the Democratic-led state refused, the government withdrew its funding, cutting about $12 million in federal funding and halting health initiatives in educational institutions, youth centers and group homes for foster children.

The state agency is challenging the withdrawal. To date, it has been unsuccessful in make up for the lost funding.

The government has additionally told instructors who receive funding from additional national programs, the $50 million Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) and the $101 million TPPP initiative, that they cannot teach about “gender-related concepts.”

An recent judicial ruling blocked the government from altering TPPP, while the Monday court order stops it from changing SRAE in the suing jurisdictions that sued over Prep.

The Administration for Children and Families did not provide a prompt reply to a request for comment.