Trump's week in review: Targeting cash bail, firing Lisa Cook
4. Trump urges states to drop trans ideology, threatens federal funding
In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that its Administration for Children and Families had sent letters to 40 states and six territories informing them that they must remove all references to gender ideology from instructional materials used under the federally funded Personal Responsibility Educational Program within 60 days.
As explained in the letters, the purpose of the PREP grants is to help states “carry out personal responsibility education programs” that teach students about “both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.” The Trump administration stressed that the statute authorizing PREP grants “neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa.”
“Gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute and any expenditures associated with gender ideology are not allowable, reasonable, or allocable to the PREP grant,” the letter stated.
The Trump administration sent letters to several states, including: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Territories singled out by the Trump administration for embracing gender ideology in PREP curriculum are: Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C. A combined total of more than $81 million in federal funding is at stake in all 46 states and territories.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
