US judge to block Trump directive to erase ‘gender ideology’ from state sex education

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Oregon said on Oct 20 she will block US President Donald Trump’s administration from forcing a group of Democratic-led states led by Washington, Oregon and Minnesota to

remove all references to “gender ideology”

from sexual health education curricula in order to receive federal grant funding.

US District Judge Ann Aiken said she plans to issue an injunction at the behest of those 16 states, as well as the District of Columbia, after a lawyer for Washington state told her during a hearing that the Department of Health and Human Services wants them to effectively “edit transgender kids out of their curricula.”

Lawyers for the states said the administration’s policy violated requirements that Congress set when it created the two programmes and usurped the authority of lawmakers over spending in violation of the US Constitution. The states that brought the case faced the risk of losing out on US$35 million (S$45.29 million) in grant funding unless they complied with the directive.

The administration argued that the policy was lawful and complied with congressional goals of promoting abstinence and sexual risk avoidance.

“We’re not excluding anybody from these programmes,” Assistant US Attorney Susanne Luse, representing the Trump administration, said during the hearing conducted by telephone. “We’re just simply saying you cannot teach that boys can be girls and girls can be boys.”

Eugene-based Aiken, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, said the administration’s policy was inconsistent with relevant statutes and “appears to be sort of a separate-but-equal” approach to sex education.

The judge said she planned to issue a written injunction shortly.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Trump on his first day back in office on Jan 20 signed an executive order directing the government to recognise only two sexes - male and female - and required agencies to ensure grant funds do not promote what he called “gender ideology.”

The lawsuit was filed after HHS on Aug 26 sent letters to 46 states and territories demanding they remove all references to “gender ideology” contained in sex education curricula and materials funded through the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program, called PREP.

The programme educates young people on abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, with particular focus on children who are homeless or living in foster care or in areas with high teen birth rates.

The department sent those letters after issuing notices earlier in August that recipients of grants from the Prep and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education programmes could not teach students “that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or boys can identify as girls and vice versa.”

HHS also terminated California’s Prep grant after the state failed to meet its demand to modify its educational materials. REUTERS