The Trump administration is cutting a relatively tiny $6 million grant to a California sex-ed program because the state refused to remove references to “radical gender ideology” from program materials.
A press release from the Trump/RFK Department of Health and Human Services described the program as a “disturbing and egregious abuse of federal funds,” in which “California has been using taxpayer money to teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’”
The Administration for Children and Families, an agency under the HHS umbrella, asked California, in March, to submit the curricula for its Personal Responsibility Education Program for review, and according to the release, ACF “identified concerning gender ideology content that exceeded the program’s statutory purposes.
In June, ACF demanded California remove all content outside of the scope of the PREP statute within 60 days.
California’s answer: nah, we’re good.
“California’s students deserve access to educational information and materials that help them make healthy decisions about sexual activity, including the decision to delay sexual activity, while honoring and respecting their dignity, including gender identity,” said Grant Boyken, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health, which responded to the Trump administration earlier this week in a letter that its educational materials are in line with the law, while the administration’s threat is not.
Buttressing California’s stance there is this bonkers quote from a guy named Andrew Gradison, named in the HHS press release as an “Acting Assistant Secretary.”
This Gradison fellow is actually a grad of the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason, which shouldn’t surprise you in the least.
That he’s never worked a real-world job in his life, also not a surprise.
They only hire ideologues there in Crazytown.
“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Gradison said in a quote in the press release. “The Trump administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.”
Somebody’s under a delusion here.
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Chris Graham
