Trump Admin Tells California: Remove ‘Gender Ideology’ From Education Program
The Trump administration is demanding California remove lessons on “gender ideology” from its sexual education curricula – or risk losing federal funds.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a letter on June 20 to California officials requiring “the removal of all gender ideology references” in its Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) curricula and program materials.
“The Trump Administration [is committed] to ensuring that federally funded programs are grounded in gold-standard, evidence-based science – not ideological agendas,” ACF stated.
PREP funds state agencies that educate young people – specifically those who are homeless, in foster care, living in rural areas or areas with high teen birth rates, or are from minority groups – on abstinence and contraception (i.e. comprehensive sex ed). According to National Review, the program reaches about 13,000 youth annually.
Acting Assistant Secretary for ACF Andrew Gradison signed the letter, which lists various teaching materials that “fall outside the scope of PREP’s authorizing statute.” ACF identified the content while preparing California’s PREP materials for a medical accuracy review.
The letter demonstrates the Golden State has infused gender ideology into its PREP curricula, including:
- A middle school lesson explaining there are people who don’t identify as boys or girls, “but rather as transgender or gender queer.”
- A teacher’s guide defining “gender identity” as “a person’s deep-seated, internal sense of who they are as a gendered being”; the guide also explains “all people have a gender identity,” which may include “non-binary, agender, bigender, genderfluid, and genderqueer.”
- A high school “teen talk” which directs facilitators to “remind students that some men are born with female anatomy, some women are born with male anatomy.”
- A middle school “teen talk” that claims “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.”
These few examples demonstrate that California is providing “egregious content teaching young students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex and that boys can identify as girls,” ACF said.
“The education materials promoting gender ideology have nothing to do with Personal Responsibility Education and are outside the scope of PREP’s authorizing statute.”
Therefore, the letter demands,
“Should California fail to make the appropriate modifications to its PREP curricula and program materials, ACF may take additional enforcement action,” the letter advised.
In a statement about the demands, Acting Assistant Secretary Gradison said, “The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children.”
He added,
While most publicly funded comprehensive sexual education programs aren’t great to begin with, additional lessons on “gender identity,” “transgenderism” and “genderfluidity” make them far worse.
Let’s hope and pray California agrees to ACF’s demands – and that hundreds of children will be spared from a state-sponsored, ideological, antiscientific and harmful indoctrination into “gender ideology.”
If you’re concerned about what your child may be learning in school, and what helpful, practical steps you can take to protect them, check out Focus on the Family’s free resource: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.
The FREE downloadable resource helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.
Related articles and resources:
‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents
How and When Should I Begin Sex Education with my Child?
Talking About Sex and Puberty with Your Kids
California Family Wins Early Legal Victory for Parental Rights, Religious Freedom
California Family Harassed After Trying to Opt-Out of Activities Teaching Gender Ideology
Back to School With Sexualized Lesson
Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Comprehensive Sex Ed
Is ‘Comprehensive Sex Education’ Effective – As its Proponents Claim?
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