Trump threatens to defund sex ed programs over gender content

Trump administration demands 46 states and territories remove all transgender references from federally-funded sex education curricula or lose $81+ million in PREP funding by Oct. 27, 2025.

Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison sent ultimatum letters declaring "Accountability is coming" and that federal funds won't "poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas."

🌴California already lost $12 million (not $12.3 million) after HHS terminated its PREP grant on Aug. 21, 2025, for refusing to remove "radical gender ideology" from education materials, with state officials defending curriculum that "honors dignity, including gender identity."

🗽New York faces losing over $6 million, 🔔Pennsylvania $4.6 million, 🍑Georgia $4.5 million, 🌰Ohio $4.2 million, and 🏈Alabama $2 million if they refuse to comply with content removal demands.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program serves the most vulnerable youth—homeless kids, foster children, rural communities, and minorities—but Trump claims even mentioning transgender people is "irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception."

Flagged content includes basic definitions of gender identity, directives allowing students to share pronouns, and requirements to "demonstrate acceptance and respect for all participants regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

The program was created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to prevent teen pregnancy and STIs among vulnerable populations, with curricula previously approved by the federal government before grants were awarded.

States have 60 days from receipt of letters to strip all inclusive language or face "withholding, suspension, or termination of federal PREP funding" affecting programs serving thousands of at-risk youth nationwide.