States Sue HHS Over Order to Remove ‘Gender Identity’ in K–12 Sex Education

A coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration to keep materials that they say “recognize and affirm gender identity” in their federally funded K–12 sex education programs.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court in Oregon, is led jointly by the attorneys general of Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington.

At issue is an order from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that prohibits what it calls “gender ideology” in lessons supported by two federal grants: the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) program. Both are used to teach teenagers about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Citing President Donald Trump’s order that no federal dollar should go toward indoctrinating children in “radical, anti-American ideologies,” HHS in August demanded that 46 states and territories remove references to gender identity from teaching materials or risk penalties, including the suspension or termination of funding. The deadline for them to comply with the conditions is Oct. 27.

“Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas,” Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, said at that time. “The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

The suing coalition argued that the order violated Congress’s spending power and that terminating the funding through these programs would result in a loss of at least $35 million and would “harm the very populations Congress intended to help.” The coalition members also argued that compliance would conflict with their own laws and policies requiring “inclusive” sex education curricula.

For example, Washington’s K–12 health standards on “self-identity” state that kindergarteners should “understand there are many ways to express gender.” Oregon similarly requires teachers to use “inclusive materials, language, and strategies that [recognize] different sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expression.”

“The federal government’s far-reaching efforts to erase people who don’t fit one of two gender labels is [sic] illegal and wrong—and would deny services to millions more in the process,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “These young people are treated equally under Washington state and federal laws, and we intend to make sure of it.”

Other states joining the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit named both Gradison and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants.

One of Kennedy’s first actions in office was to declare that “there are only two sexes, female and male,” defining sex as “unchangeable and determined by objective biology.”

“This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Kennedy said in February. “The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”

The definition aligns with Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

HHS did not respond to a request for comments by publication time.