US government orders 46 states to destroy trans education materials

The US government is reportedly demanding that almost every state in the US remove sex education materials referencing trans and non-binary people.

A call made by the Trump administration on Tuesday (26 August) threatens to rescind federal funding for educational institutions in at least 46 states and US territories if they do not comply with the order.

Overall, the measure could see over $81.3 million wiped from the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), a federal education funding initiative.

One of the letters handed to education officials in Alabama, seen by PinkNews, orders the removal of modules, books, and other materials by 27 October or face federal funding cuts.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) argued in the letter that teaching so-called “gender ideology” is not mentioned under PREP’s funding criteria and, therefore, is not “allowable, reasonable, or allocable.”

“[Trans education materials are] both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects described in [PREP’s criteria],” they wrote.

“The statute neither requires, supports, nor authorises teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorising statute.”

The department, headed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, said in a statement reported by The Hill that the initiative comes amid US President Donald Trump’s “ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology.”

The 79-year-old president has increased his anti-woke rhetoric over the last month, shortly after he became embroiled in controversy over his association with the late disgraced financier and sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Earlier in August, Trump said he planned to sue the Smithsonian Institution, which operates several museums and educational venues in Washington DC, over its exhibits on the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade, which he called “woke.”

Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), said the Trump administration’s threat to rescind federal funding was yet another part of the president’s “all-out fight to erase government recognition of transgender people.”

“Sexual education programs, at their best, are age-appropriate, fact-based and informative at a time when young people need this information to keep themselves healthy,” Powell said. “When they do not acknowledge the existence of trans people, they fail in their goal to inform

“Cutting this funding denies young people the information they need to make safe, healthy, and informed decisions about their own bodies.”

Trump says has has ‘the right to do anything I want to do’

Just hours after the trans education order was issued, Donald Trump said in a statement that he feels he can do “anything” he wants.

In a televised cabinet meeting, Trump addressed backlash over his decision to deploy the National Guard in Washington DC by criticising Illinois governor J B Pritzker for not allowing him to do the same thing in the state.

He said he would have “much more respect for Pritzker” if the governor caved to his demand to allow members of the National Guard to enter the state.

“Not that I don’t have – I would – the right to do anything I want to do,” he said. “I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger – and it is in danger in these cities – I can do it.”

The Trump administrations alleged plans for the trans-inclusive sex ed materials comes after he threatened pull federal funding from California school districts that do not adhere to his administration’s transgender policies, after the state refused to ban trans girls from female sports.

“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on 21 August.

It is latest escalation in the Republican president’s on-going fight with the state and its Democratic governor Gavin Newsom over trans inclusion in sport, after AB Hernandez – a 16-year-old trans junior at Jurupa Valley High School – became the focus of right-wing vitriol when she qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Champions. 

Following this, Trump has also warned he would also sue California over its redistricting plans, which Democratic lawmakers said were in response to a similar plan in Texas.

Republicans attempted to redistrict Texas’s congressional map in early August, a move which would have given the GOP more seats in the US Congress.

In response, California lawmakers announced similar plans, which would increase the number of Democratic seats in the federal government.

Asked about the proposed plans, the US president said: “Well, I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon. And I think we’re going to be very successful in it.”

Newsom responded to the legal threat in an X/Twitter post, writing to Trump: “BRING IT.”