WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration has asked 46 states to remove all references to “gender ideology” in school curriculum, or risk termination of federal funding.
States named in a press release from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) include Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming.
Letters to each individual state included specific lessons and parts of curriculum that the Trump Administration contests. The following definition of the word “gender” was raised as an issue for a majority of the states:
“Gender refers to the ideas in a culture or society about the appropriate ways for men and women to dress, behave, think and feel. Ideas about what gender behavior is appropriate change in different cultures and at different times in history. Sometimes one gender is given more power or status than another”
Certain notices were more specific to each state. Notably, Alaska schools were asked to strike all references to Two-Spirit Indigenous people, which have been documented for centuries.
The curriculum in question is called Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), which is funded by the federal government.
According to a spreadsheet shared by HHS, the PREP funding that might be removed is $539,601 for Montana, $1,610,927 for Oregon and $2,633,804 for Washington.
