A federal judge in Oregon said during a hearing on Monday that she plans to issue an injunction stopping the Trump administration from requiring several Democratic-led states to remove references to gender ideology from their sexual health education curricula as a condition of receiving federal grant funding.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, based in Eugene, made the comments in reference to a lawsuit filed by 16 states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia. The states of Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota are leading the group.
The lawsuit centers on an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20—the first day of his second term.
The order called for federal agencies to recognize two sexes, male and female, and to ensure that grant funds do not support “gender ideology.”
The Department of Health and Human Services published notices in August that recipients of grants from the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education programs must not include content teaching that gender identity is separate from biological sex.
The department also sent 46 states and territories letters in which it mandated the removal of any such references from federally funded materials within 60 days. Non-compliance led to actions including the termination of California’s PREP grant after the state did not change its educational content.
Hellbound and Down 