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The Trump administration risks giving California 60 days to remove gender identity material from its sex education curriculum and losing more than $12.3 million in federal grants that helped to pay for material creation and distribution.
This order is the latest clash between the administration and California related to LGBTQ+ issues. These cultures are furious in many ways, but they effectively date back to Trump’s January 20th executive order, which acknowledged two genders: male and female.
In youth sports, the gap is unfolding in Trump, where California threatens to inflate federal funds by removing trans athletes from girls and women’s sports at bars.
California has not adhered to this before.
Within the classroom, Trump’s policies mean opposing a curriculum that allows for more than gender binary (male or female). Historically, federal authorities for local curricula have been limited, but Trump has used leverage quickly with federal funds.
In this case, the pressure is applied to the US Department of Health and Human Services administrators for children and families.
According to federal law, the Children and Family Division manages a grant program that distributes $75 million annually nationwide to “educate adolescents… both abstinence and contraception for both sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.”
Over three years, California has been allocated more than $18.2 million in funding over the next fiscal year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state could lose $12.3 million that it has yet to receive, covering multiple years.
California has not been accused of not carrying out abstinence and birth control messages. Rather, the state contains additional content that the Trump administration defines as offensive and “out of scope” of grant purposes.
“The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds on programs that inculcate our children,” Deputy Director Andrew Ground said. “Officient gender ideological content is unacceptable and is outside the core purpose of the program.”
A June 20 letter to senior California staff cited the language of a sample from a middle school lesson, as one of several examples.
“We have been talking about the message during class, and people talk about how we should act as boys and girls, and as many people know, some don’t identify as boys and girls, but others are rather transgender and gendered.
In a statement, the California Department of Public Health did not say how it would respond to federal demand, but defended the material as “medically accurate, comprehensive and age-appropriate.”
Federal grants support California’s Personal Responsibility Education Program, or CA PREP. This “provides comprehensive sexual health education for adolescents” via an effective, evidence-based or evidence-based program model, the state statement said.
The California Department also said “the curriculum was pre-approved by the federal government in accordance with federal regulations.”
The Trump administration did not deny this, but said the Biden administration “is incorrect in allowing preparatory grants to be used to teach students gender ideology.”
The funding will help pay for sex education programs at juvenile justice facilities, homeless shelters, foster parent group homes, and some schools, reaching an estimated 13,000 youths per year by up to 20 institutions.
“The data show that participants who completed CA Prep have a better understanding of sexual and reproductive health topics and improved health outcomes,” the Health Department said.
California law requires school districts to provide comprehensive sexual health education to students at least once for high school and middle schools, along with information on HIV prevention.
The Trump administration has argued for full power over federal grants, including ongoing grants. The cancellation of that grant has been challenged in court.
Times staff writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report.
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