Trump administration tells states to remove references to 'gender
ideology' from sex ed materials
[August 30, 2025]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
President Donald Trump's administration this week told 40 states to
eliminate parts of lessons that focus on LGBTQ+ issues from federally
funded sexual education materials or that they will lose funding.
The move is the latest in a line of efforts since Trump returned to the
White House in January to recognize people as only male or female and to
eliminate what he calls “gender ideology.”
“Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next
generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas," Acting Assistant
Health and Human Service Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement.
That position contradicts what the American Medical Association and
other mainstream medical groups say: that extensive scientific research
suggests sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an
either-or definition.
The funds in question in the Personal Responsibility Education Program
total over $81 million for the 40 states plus the District of Columbia
and five territories where officials were also sent the letter. The
officials were told they have 60 days to change the lessons or could
lose their grants.
California was warned previously, and the $12 million grant for that
state was stripped on Aug. 21.
Now, other states will have until late October to decide whether to
comply or give up the funding.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong also suggested there could be
legal challenges to the administration's effort. “Threatening to defund
our schools over this is completely unhinged and we’re not going to let
Trump steal money from our kids,” he said in a statement.
The grants are used to teach adolescents about abstinence and
contraception. They target education for those who are homeless, in
foster care, living in rural areas or places with high teen birth rates
— and minority groups, including LGBTQ+ populations.
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 Alison Macklin, spokesperson for
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, said the grant money is used for
things like training sex education instructors and for groups that
present lessons in schools or after-school groups.
“This money is essential to states and territories
to support sex education,” she said. “They build critical life
skills for young people.”
She noted that some states have laws requiring education about
lesbian, gay and transgender people.
In the letters, the federal Administration for Children and Families
pointed to specific examples in textbooks and curricula that they
find objectionable.
For instance, a curriculum used in Alabama encourages the instructor
to ask participants to share the pronouns they use.
It also tells the instructor to tell the class that people “may
identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight. Some may identify as
male, female or transgender. All of these differences make us
unique. Regardless of how you see yourself, your background,
previous relationships or experience, each of you has a place in
this group.”
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster applauded the warnings during a
question-and-answer period with reporters this week.
“The things they describe there really have got no business being in
there," he said. “Somebody has gone crazy somewhere trying to put
all this stuff” in lessons.
___
Associated Press reporters Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South
Carolina, and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to
this article.
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