Trump Admin Warns States: Remove Gender Ideology ‘Poison’ Or Lose Funding

The Trump administration issued a stern warning on Tuesday to 40 U.S. states, five territories, and the District of Columbia: remove gender ideology from taxpayer-funded youth education programs—or risk losing millions in federal support.

The directive came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which announced a 60-day deadline for states and territories to purge ideological content from their Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) curriculum, or face serious financial consequences.

“Accountability is coming,” declared Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

Only ten states were not targeted in the enforcement push: Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. All other states and five U.S. territories—including Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—received official notices from the Office of Family Assistance, the division within HHS responsible for administering PREP.

The warning follows the Trump administration’s recent termination of California’s PREP grant after the state refused to remove gender ideology from its curriculum, despite repeated demands from federal officials. “States and territories receiving these new letters are now on notice,” HHS warned. “Failure to comply will result in similar enforcement actions including the withholding, suspension, or termination of federal PREP funding.”

States at risk of losing significant funding include New York, which could forfeit over $6 million in federal grants, and Pennsylvania, which stands to lose approximately $4.6 million.

What the Administration Objects To

Examples from the state-prepared curriculum materials highlight the kind of content the Trump administration aims to eliminate. In New York, PREP educational content included language such as:
“Gender identity is people’s inner understanding of what gender they identify with. It may be man, woman, something in between, or something that doesn’t fit these labels. It may be the same as (cisgender) or different from (transgender) the sex they were assigned at birth.”

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s materials offered this instruction:
“… during the roleplay practice, participants may roleplay social pressure situations with someone of a different or the same gender. This may be awkward for straight teens who are sensitive to the suggestion of same-sex romance, for teens who identify as gay or lesbian, or for teens who are transgender or gender nonconforming. It is important to address this situation directly and proactively.”

Officials argue that such lessons cross the line into political indoctrination and deviate from the original purpose of the PREP initiative, which is meant to focus on topics like teen pregnancy prevention and healthy relationship education—not to promote what they call “radical identity theories.”

Next Steps

HHS emphasized that the 60-day window for compliance is final. Should states and territories fail to amend their educational content in that time, the federal government will initiate funding cuts or terminations without further warning.

This move comes as part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to root out left-wing ideology from federally funded institutions, particularly those involving children and public education. The administration has framed this as a battle to protect parental rights and return education to “core American values.”