The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ordered 46 states and territories yesterday to stop teaching “delusional” gender ideology in federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Programs (PREP).
The states — all except Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia — and Washington D.C. must make their PREP curricula biologically accurate in the next 60 days or lose the grant altogether.
“Accountability is coming,” Acting Assistant HHS Secretary Andrew Gradison wrote in a press release.
“Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.”
The order is no idle threat. Just last week, HHS terminated all PREP grants to California — totaling some $14.4 million — after the state reportedly refused to scrub gender ideology from its PREP programs.
Congress created the federal PREP grant program in 2010 to reduce teen pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted disease and infection. States can use PREP grants to fund:
- Programs teaching high-risk teens and young parents about abstinence and contraception.
- Programs teaching “adult preparation” topics like healthy life skills, financial literacy, education and career success, parent-child communication, adolescent development and healthy social skills.
The second kind of program has proven most problematic. According to HHS, California and the 40 states named in its most recent order improperly teach gender ideology in PREP-funded “adult preparation” programs.
HHS first discovered this kind of abuse in California. The state’s PREP materials include:
- A teacher’s guide affirming “all people have a gender identity, or [a deep-seated internal sense of who they are as a gendered being” and defining identities like “non-binary,” “agender,” “bigender,” “genderfluid” and “genderqueer.”
- A middle school lesson claiming some people identity as “transgender and gender queer,” rather than male or female.
- A middle school “teen talk” differentiating “sex assigned at birth” and “gender identity.”
- A high school guide directing teachers to “remind students that some men are born with female anatomy [and] some women are born with male anatomy.”
On June 20, HHS gave California the same ultimatum it would later issue to most of the country: Remove all reference to gender ideology from PREP curricula and program material within sixty days or forfeit the grant altogether — including the $14.4 million in PREP grants set to pay out through 2025.
The state reportedly refused earlier this month, arguing the materials were “medically accurate” and appropriate to teach in “adult preparation” programs.
In its August 21 termination letter, HHS refuted both claims.
“The [federal] statute [authorizing PREP] does not require, support or authorize teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa,” the letter reads, emphasizing:
[Gender ideology] is both irrelevant to teach abstinence and contraception and is unrelated to any of the [authorized PREP] adult preparation subjects.
Moreover, to prove materials are medically accurate within the scope of PREP, California would have to demonstrate they are:
- “Verified or supported by the weight of research conducted in compliance with accepted scientific methods.”
- Either published in peer-reviewed journals or accepted by industry experts as accurate.
Per the 400-page report HHS released earlier this year, gender ideology meets neither standard.
“Gender ideology is not supported by the weight of science,” the letter reads, “and thus cannot inform adult preparation subjects … such as healthy relationships, healthy attitudes and values about adolescent growth and development of health life skills.”
The Daily Citizen praises HHS for further divorcing the government from anti-scientific gender ideology. Taxpayers should not be paying to confuse and indoctrinate vulnerable youth.
Additional Articles and Resources
Trump Admin Tells California: Remove ‘Gender Ideology’ From Education Program
New Research Shows ‘Transgender’ Identity Dramatically Driven by Immaturity
New Paper Details ‘Emerging and Accumulating’ Adverse Effects of ‘Gender Affirming’ Estrogen
FBI Investigates Three Major Hospitals for Mutilating Children
INVESTIGATION: Taxpayers Fund Transgender Experiments on Children
HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors
New Research: 50-Fold Increase in ‘Gender Dysphoria’ in UK
Doctor Refuses to Publish Major Study Finding Puberty-Blocking Drugs Don’t Help Children
England’s NHS Stops Dispensing Puberty Blockers for Children — Not Safe or Effective
