Recently, the Trump administration took a necessary step to protect North Carolina’s children from gender ideology in our schools. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) directed the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to remove all references to gender ideology from federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) materials — or face consequences (see page 126 of letter at the bottom of this article).
The HHS directive was sent to 40 states and six territories because the Trump administration is committed to affirming the biological reality of two genders, and because PREP funds were never intended to be used to teach gender ideology in the first place. PREP is a comprehensive sex education program created in 2009, purportedly intended to reduce risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The federal law says nothing about teaching students to question their biological sex or embrace radical gender theories. Yet, North Carolina’s PREP-funded curricula go far beyond the program’s intent and into outright gender ideology indoctrination.
For example, in one lesson children are told that male and female are nothing more than “what the doctor said they were when they were born,” and that being “gender queer” is just as valid. They are instructed to replace the words “girl” and “woman” with phrases like “someone with a vulva.” Teachers are told to ask children what pronouns they prefer, and students are told that “someone with a penis might not identify as a boy/man.”
The PREP funds have been distributed to East Carolina University’s School Health Training Center for training and facilitating a number of sex education programs that contain gender indoctrination. During the 2023-2024 school year, PREP funds were directed to Cumberland, Montgomery, Brunswick, Lenoir, Scotland, and Pamlico counties.
Parents across the state send their children to school to learn, not to be pressured into adopting controversial beliefs that contradict biology, faith, and common sense. The Trump administration’s actions send a clear message: States that choose harmful ideology over compliance will face consequences. California already lost federal funding after refusing to remove gender ideology from its curriculum.
As each day passes, more and more research shows that gender ideology and the push for children suffering from gender dysphoria to transition is hurting not helping our children. More than 80% of these children would desist if left alone rather than being pushed down the path of gender transitioning. There are sky-rocketing rates of suicide, severe urological problems, and mental health complications.
It’s hard to imagine a more striking picture of the dangers of telling children that they can change their gender than the recent shooting by with Robin Westman. Robin Westman (formerly named Robert Westman) shot and killed two children and wounded 18 more at a Minneapolis church. He then took his own life. Robin, a male, had previously undergone social and medical interventions to appear as a woman. But transitioning did not help him. In the manifesto he posted online before the shooting he said that he “was tired of being trans” and wished he “never brainwashed” himself.
Robin was seeking a solution to the mental and emotional distress he was experiencing. Instead, things only got worse for him after his attempted transition. He said so himself. His inner turmoil was not healed by social and medical gender transition interventions.
The HHS order and other actions taken by the Trump administration to affirm the biological reality of two genders are not only lawful, they are a moral imperative. Mental health problems should be addressed urgently and with compassion. People need real help. But teaching false concepts about gender in public schools will only confuse more children. Taxpayers want their money to be spent on lessons and activities that enrich children’s lives — not harm children.