Judge to Block Trump Directive to Erase 'Gender Ideology' From Sex Education

A federal judge in Oregon said on Monday she will block President Donald Trump's administration from forcing a group of Democrat-led states led by Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota to remove all references to "gender ideology" from sexual health education curricula in order to receive federal grant funding.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken said she plans to issue an injunction at the behest of those 16 states, as well as the District of Columbia, after a lawyer for Washington state told her in a hearing that the Department of Health and Human Services wants them to effectively "edit transgender kids out of their curricula."

Lawyers for the states said the administration's policy violated requirements that Congress set when it created the two programs and usurped the authority of lawmakers over spending in violation of the Constitution.

The states that brought the case faced the risk of losing out on $35 million in grant funding unless they complied with the directive.

The administration argued that the policy was lawful and complied with congressional goals of promoting abstinence and sexual risk avoidance.

"We're not excluding anybody from these programs," Assistant U.S. Attorney Susanne Luse, representing the Trump administration, said in the hearing conducted by telephone. "We're just simply saying you cannot teach that boys can be girls and girls can be boys."

Aiken, appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the administration's policy was inconsistent with relevant statutes and "appears to be sort of a separate-but-equal" approach to sex education.

The judge said she planned to issue a written injunction shortly.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order directing the government to recognize only two sexes — male and female — and required agencies to ensure that grant funds do not promote what he called "gender ideology."

The lawsuit was filed after HHS on Aug. 26 sent letters to 46 states and territories demanding they remove all references to "gender ideology" contained in sex education curricula and materials funded through the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program, known as PREP.

The program educates young people on abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, with particular focus on children who are homeless or living in foster care or in areas with high teen birth rates.

The department sent those letters after issuing notices earlier in August that recipients of grants from the PREP and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education programs could not teach students "that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or boys can identify as girls and vice versa."

HHS also terminated California's PREP grant after the state failed to meet its demand to modify its educational materials.