Feds Order States to Nix ‘Gender’ Propaganda or Lose Funds

The federal government will no longer be using U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize “transgender” brainwashing of children in government schools, according to health and education authorities. The change comes after years of the Biden and Obama administrations using federal funding to promote bizarre ideas and ideologies on “gender.”

In a letter sent to officials in almost all 50 states, the Trump administration demanded a removal of “gender ideology” and related indoctrination from sexual education programs in government schools. States and territories that refuse to comply within 60 days risk losing federal funding for some of their programs, officials warned.

One of the tools being wielded by the administration is grant funding for states’ so-called “Personal Responsibility Education Program” (PREP). The grants, which began in 2010 and go through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are used to fund “sex education.” LGBT extremism is often part of it.

Naturally, the move by U.S. officials is sparking outrage among Democrat politicians who insist on propagandizing and confusing the captive children in government schools. Quite a few state and local bureaucrats have openly declared that they prefer to lose federal funding rather than stop pushing “transgender” ideology on children.

The administration appears serious. “Accountability is coming,” said Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Andrew Gradison. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

It is not an empty threat. Just last week, the administration ended California’s PREP grants worth millions of dollars after the state refused to remove “radical gender ideology” from its federally funded “education” on teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. U.S. officials did not hold back, lambasting state authorities for the horrors being pushed on children.

Blasting the “disturbing and egregious abuse of federal funds,” administration officials said California was misusing tax money to teach horrific ideas. These included curricula that “encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals,” “altering their body … through hormone therapy,” “adding or removing breast tissue,” and “changing their name.”

According to the statement released by HHS about the scandal, California’s education authorities were ordering teachers in the state to “remind students that some men are born with female anatomy.” Of course, basic biology and common sense contradict that. Males are born with male anatomy, and females are born with female anatomy, science shows.

“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” said Gradison. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.”

California officials were outraged about the effort to stop federal subsidies for gender indoctrination. “If it’s a day ending in y, President Trump is attacking kids’ safety, health and access to education as part of his culture war,” a spokesman for California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement quoted in media reports.

Letters sent to various states identify problematic provisions that must be removed for the federal funding to continue. In Michigan, for instance, federal authorities identified “pronoun” propaganda in a program called “Making Proud Choices” that violates a requirement for “medical accuracy” in all educational materials.

The demands on states regarding “gender” propaganda come as the nation reels from yet another mass shooting perpetrated by a self-described “transgender” individual. Interestingly, unlike previous “transgender” mass shooters, the perpetrator in Minnesota expressed regret for “transitioning” to impersonate a female.

“I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brainwashed myself,” the man reportedly responsible for the killings at a Catholic school in Minneapolis wrote in a manifesto-style screed uploaded to YouTube. “I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans.”

Separately from the actions of HHS on gender, the U.S. Department of Education announced this week it was investigating a Massachusetts school district over a controversial “survey.” Apparently, the district gave it even to students whose parents opted out. The so-called “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” asks questions about homosexuality, gender, sex toys, and more.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education is also cancelling dozens of federal education grants worth over $1 billion. The funding, which was not set to expire for years, was set to go toward everything from “desegregation” to “teacher training.” Of course, the “education” establishment is freaking out about the grants.

Obviously, U.S. taxpayers should not be funding transgender indoctrination in government schools or anywhere else. But as long as federal authorities continue using unconstitutional funding to control state and local policy, it is only a matter of time before a Democrat gets back in office and reverses course. Then, the gender madness will be back with a vengeance.  

It was federal funding for “education” that infected government schools nationwide with transgender mania in the first place. Real progress on this and related issues, then, is not to withhold some funds to achieve compliance, but to get the federal government out of education (and so much more), as the U.S. Constitution requires. Children deserve better.  

Alex Newman is an award-winning international journalist, educator, author, and consultant who co-wrote the book “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children.” He writes for diverse publications in the United States and abroad. Originally published at Liberty Sentinel.