Trump's demand to erase gender identity from sex education programmes: Here are the states that complied

At least 11 American states and two territories have complied with a directive from the Trump administration to remove all references to gender identity, transgender and non-binary people from a federally funded sex education initiative, The Guardian reports.The order, issued through the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), warned that states risked losing millions of dollars in funding under the $75 million Personal Responsibility Education Programme (Prep) if they failed to comply by Monday’s deadline. The majority of the states that have done so are Republican-led, with both legislatures and governors aligned with the administration’s position.

A sweeping order and a divided response

The administration’s instruction followed a “medical accuracy review” of sex education curricula across 46 states and territories. Officials claimed to have identified “content that falls outside the scope” of Prep’s authorising statute, a reference widely understood to mean material relating to gender diversity and inclusion.The directive comes amid a broader federal effort to eliminate what administration officials describe as “gender ideology” from education and health programmes. Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement that “accountability is coming” and that federal funds would not be used “to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas,” The Guardian reports.

While some states quickly moved to amend or remove the contested material, others have mounted legal challenges. Sixteen states and Washington DC, led primarily by Democratic governors, have sued the federal government, arguing that the directive oversteps executive authority and infringes upon Congress’s legislative mandate.On Monday, United States district judge Ann Aiken of Oregon issued a temporary order blocking the HHS from cutting funding to those Democratic-led states that have refused to comply.

In her ruling, Aiken said the department had “failed to show that the new grant conditions are reasonable” and offered “no evidence” that it had properly considered the relevant data or statutory objectives.

States that complied

Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming confirmed their compliance with the directive. The US Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands, two American territories, also said they had removed references to gender identity from their curricula.Two other states, Alabama and South Dakota, said that their programmes never contained the terminology cited in the administration’s letters, The Guardian reports.Together, the states and territories that have complied are home to more than 120,000 transgender individuals aged between 13 and 17, according to data from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Fallout and broader implications

The decision could have serious consequences for vulnerable youth. Cindi Huss, head of Rise, a Tennessee-based organisation that provides sex education, told The Guardian that restricting the mention of gender identity sends a damaging message to young people who already face stigma.

When the government signals that “there’s something wrong with you” and teachers are prevented from offering support, she said, it undermines students’ mental health and sense of safety.Research from the Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention organisation, shows that nearly half of transgender and non-binary youth in the United States seriously considered suicide in the past year. Access to inclusive education and support systems is linked to lower rates of suicide attempts among these groups.

Federal funding and future battles

California was among the first to resist the directive. When the state refused to alter its curriculum earlier this year, the administration withdrew approximately $12 million in Prep funding, effectively halting sex education initiatives across schools, juvenile detention centres and group homes. The California Department of Public Health is currently appealing that decision but has yet to replace the lost funding.The Trump administration has issued similar guidance to two other federal sex education programmes: the $50 million Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) initiative and the $101 million Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programme (TPPP), barring any content deemed to promote “gender ideology”. However, recent court rulings have temporarily prevented these changes from taking effect in states that joined the lawsuits.As the legal battle unfolds, the controversy underscores a widening ideological divide over the role of gender identity in education. For now, the Trump administration’s directive has left states split between those complying to preserve federal funding and those challenging what they view as an overreach into classrooms and curricula.