Trump administration orders California to remove gender identity from sex education lessons

The Trump administration has given California 60 days to remove gender identity materials from sex education curriculum or risk losing more than $12.3 million in federal grants that helped pay for the creation and distribution of the materials.

The order is the latest clash between the administration and California related to LGBTQ+ issues. These culture war-tinged disputes have raged on many fronts, but date back substantially to Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order that recognized two sexes, male and female, a dictum that has moved across all departments under his jurisdiction.

In youth sports, this divide has unfolded with Trump threatening to withhold vast sums of federal funding unless California bars transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

California has not complied to date.

Within the classroom, the Trump policy has meant opposing curriculum that allows for more than a binary — male or female — expression of gender. Historically, federal authority over local curriculum has been limited, but Trump has been quick to use federal funding as leverage.

In this case, it’s the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is applying pressure.

The children and families department administers a grant program that annually distributes $75 million nationally “to educate adolescents on ... both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS,” according to federal statute.

For a three-year period, through the next fiscal year, California has been allotted funding worth more than $18.2 million, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state could lose $12.3 million that it has not yet received, covering multiple years.

California is not being accused of failing to carry out the abstinence and contraception message. Rather, the state has included additional content that the Trump administration defines as objectionable and “outside the scope” of the grant’s purpose.

“The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. “The disturbing gender ideology content ... is both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose.”

A June 20 letter to a senior California official cited, as one of several examples, sample wording from a middle school lesson:

“We’ve been talking during class about messages people get on how they should act as boys and girls — but as many of you know, there are also people who don’t identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer. This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently.”

In a statement, the California Department of Public Health did not say how it would respond to the federal demand, but defended the materials as “medically accurate, comprehensive, and age-appropriate.”

The federal grant supports the California Personal Responsibility Education Program, or CA PREP, which provides “comprehensive sexual health education to adolescents via effective, evidence-based or evidence-informed program models,” the state statement said.

The California department also noted that “the curricula have been federally pre-approved, in accordance with federal regulations.”

The Trump administration did not deny this, but said the Biden administration “erred in allowing PREP grants to be used to teach students gender ideology.”

The funding helps pay for sex education programs in juvenile justice facilities, homeless shelters and foster care group homes, as well as some schools, reaching an estimated 13,000 youth per year through 20 agencies.

“Data show that participants who completed CA PREP had a better understanding of sexual and reproductive health topics and improved health outcomes,” the health department stated.

California law requires school districts to provide students with comprehensive sexual health education, along with information about HIV prevention, at least once in high school and once in middle school.

The Trump administration has asserted complete authority over federal grants, including those in progress. Its grant cancellations are being challenged in court.

Times staff writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report.