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No fewer than 11 states and a pair of regions have agreed to a new directive from the federal government to eliminate references of gender identity and the existence of trans and non-binary people from a federal sex education initiative, officials stated.

The government established a recent cutoff for stripping these references, warning the withdrawal of millions in federal funds. Nearly all of the agreeing jurisdictions have Republican-controlled state legislatures and predominantly Republican governors.

Court Battles and Financial Conflicts

An additional sixteen jurisdictions and Washington DC have filed a lawsuit challenging the government's requirement, claiming it violates legislative power, which established the $75m sex education program, known as the PREP initiative.

All states participating in the lawsuit are governed by Democrat state executives.

In a recent judicial ruling, a federal judge blocked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which manages Prep, from cutting funding to the suing jurisdictions if they do not adhere.

“The agency does not demonstrate that the new grant conditions are justified, let alone offer any reasonable explanation, other than an excuse, for its actions,” wrote Ann Aiken, a U.S. district judge in Oregon. “HHS provides no evidence that it made informed determinations or considered the statutory objectives.”

Initiative Aims and Federal Review

Prep seeks to inform teenagers on healthy relationships and how to avoid pregnancy and the transmission of STIs.

In the spring, the Trump administration demanded all states and territories obtaining Prep funds to provide a version of their curriculum to HHS and its subsidiary, the Administration for Children and Families, for a “medical accuracy review”.

Four months later, the administration sent letters to numerous jurisdictions, informing them that, during the review, it had found “content in the curricula that fall outside the purview of Prep’s authorizing statute.”

In particular, the administration said it had identified evidence of “gender-related concepts,” a term often used by conservative groups to describe the idea that gender is a fluid social construct and that trans and non-binary people are real.

Specific Examples of Requested Changes

The government directed Illinois to remove a curriculum that said: “Young people may identify in ways that don’t conform with their biological sex.”

It instructed another state to eliminate a sentence from a middle school lesson that read: “People of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to know how to avoid unplanned pregnancy and infections.”

Moreover, sex educators in numerous states could no longer be instructed to “show tolerance and understanding for all participants, irrespective of personal characteristics, including ethnicity, heritage, religion, economic status, orientation or identity,” according to the letters sent to jurisdictions.

Official Statements and State Responses

“Accountability is coming,” said Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary of the ACF office, in a announcement. “Government money will not be used to negatively influence of the youth or promote dangerous ideological agendas.”

Several jurisdictions and territories stated they would remove the content or had completed the process. These consist of Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Another pair of jurisdictions, Alabama and South Dakota, said their educational programs never included the terminology mentioned in the government's notices.

Impact on Youth and Psychological Well-being

Together, these jurisdictions are inhabited by over 120,000 transgender individuals between the ages of 13 and 17, based on projections from a university department.

“When the aim is to help adolescents and give them a secure environment, I’m not sure why we are targeting the most vulnerable youth in the population,” said Cindi Huss, who heads Rise that provides sex education in one state.

“If authorities state that there’s something wrong with you and the teachers aren’t allowed to tell you things or they have to out you to your parents – when you know that that’s not safe – that’s horrible for mental health.”

Nearly half of transgender adolescents contemplated self-harm in the past year, based on a 2024 survey from a suicide-prevention group. School support for these youths is associated with lower rates of self-harm attempts, the group found.

Earlier Incidents and Ongoing Disputes

Earlier this year, the Trump administration ordered a state to remove references to transgender topics from its educational program.

When the jurisdiction refused, the administration withdrew its funding, cutting approximately $12m in government money and halting health initiatives in schools, juvenile detention facilities and care facilities.

The California health department is challenging the withdrawal. To date, it has been unsuccessful in replace the lost funding.

The Trump administration has also told educators who receive money from additional national programs, the $50 million SRAE program and the $101 million TPPP initiative, that they may not teach about “gender-related concepts.”

An recent judicial ruling blocked the government from altering one program, while the latest ruling stops it from modifying SRAE in the suing jurisdictions that sued over Prep.

The ACF office did not provide a prompt reply to a inquiry.