Trump administration targets California sex ed program
California must submit its sex education curriculums to the Trump administration by Tuesday for an unusual “medical accuracy review” that some LGBTQ advocates fear is a move by the administration to find new ways to limit gender-affirming care.
The investigation targets California’s implementation of the national Personal Responsibility Education Program, a $75 million program that teaches youth and teens about abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The program is overseen by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The agency said in a news release Thursday that the request is permitted under the terms and conditions of the grant.
“As part of our radical transparency efforts, I will ensure the curriculum students are taught is age-appropriate and medically accurate,” said Andrew Gradison, the agency’s acting assistant secretary.
Alex Pfeiffer, deputy assistant to the president, posted on the social media platform X that California was “using taxpayer money to teach kids about sex toys and role playing,” linking to a DailyMail article with the same headline.
The explanation for the probe is disingenuous, said Jorge Reyes Salinas, director of communications at Equality California, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy group.
“This is not about transparency. This is about censorship,” Salinas said. “This attack by the federal administration is really about censorship and how to get rid of resources for people that need them the most. … And this is not just about eliminating conversations about gender-affirming care … but really about keeping people in the dark about health and personal sexual health.”
In California, the Personal Responsibility Education Program funds 22 agencies — county health departments, family resource centers and Planned Parenthood — in 20 counties with the highest need for sex health education and services, according to the state health department. The program has reached over 40,000 youth throughout the state since 2012.
Gradison did not elaborate on what, if any, concerns the agency had with California’s program materials. It said Friday the request to review California’s curriculum is “standard practice” but would not confirm whether it was the only state to receive the request.
The agency’s fact sheet on the program was inaccessible Monday.
The California Department of Public Health said in a statement Friday that it would comply with the request but didn’t respond to a question about whether this is the first time the state has been asked to submit its materials for review.
The department receives the most grant funding of any recipient under the program — $5.8 million to teach abstinence, safe sex practices and HIV-prevention to high-needs populations, including LGBTQ youth, homeless youth, minorities, migrant farmworkers, foster youth and incarcerated youth. The program also teaches about forming healthy relationships and life skills and teaches “adolescent development,” including physical and reproductive development and identity. The program’s curriculum includes language affirming different gender identities, sexual orientations and LGBTQ youth.
The probe comes as the Trump administration has pursued efforts to target transgender protections. Since he took office in January, President Donald Trump has signed several anti-trans executive orders, including orders that only recognize two sexes, limit gender-affirming treatments for youth and prohibit transgender players from participating in high school and college sports.
The administration has cracked down on California in particular, starting six new investigations against the state on Thursday, targeting the state’s controversial transgender bill prohibiting schools from requiring staff to notify families if their child uses a different name or gender than on their school record, evaluating affirmative action policies at a handful of California universities and suppressing the state’s use of federal funding to support undocumented students, among others.
While state law requires that students in grades 7-12 receive sexual health and HIV prevention education at least once in middle school and once in high school, California does not have a statewide sex education curriculum, so school districts, school boards and county offices of education are in charge of choosing the course materials taught in classrooms. The law states the material must meet core standards and be age appropriate and medically accurate. This material is not part of the probe.
Sex education in California must include all genders and sexual orientations, as well as discuss gender identity and expression.
Salinas said he wasn’t aware of the federal government ever reviewing state sexual education materials but wasn’t surprised, based on the executive orders that have already come from the Trump administration.
“This is a way to hold states’, and in particular California’s, federal money hostage to threaten taking away funding to change the narrative and to censor the most vulnerable groups,” Salinas said. “This is part of their efforts to erase transgender people from history books (and) from society.”