FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28th, 2025
Contact: Ashley Vaughan
ashley@ncvalues.org

NC VALUES RESPONDS: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DIRECTS NC TO REMOVE GENDER IDEOLOGY FROM SEX EDUCATION

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has directed the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to remove all references to gender ideology in their federally-funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) educational materials within 60 days or face enforcement actions.

“We applaud the Trump administration for its steadfast commitment to protecting children from the harms of gender ideology in our public schools. Children go to school to learn – not to be indoctrinated with harmful ideas that many parents object to,” said NC Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald.

Last week, ACF terminated California’s PREP grant after the state failed to comply with its request to remove gender ideology from its educational materials. These actions reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to protect children from the harms of gender ideology, and are in keeping with President Trump’s Executive Orders on gender ideology.

The PREP program is a federal sex education program which began in 2009 designed to educate adolescents on ways to reduce the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Federal law does not authorize the inclusion of gender identity instruction within PREP-funded programs. Examples of unauthorized gender ideology content being taught to North Carolina children include:

  • Defining male/female as “what the doctor said they were when they were born,” while presenting “gender queer” as equally valid.

  • Claims “people often know their gender identity when they are very little, before they start kindergarten.”

  • Directs teachers to use terms like “someone with a vulva” instead of “girl” or “woman” to be inclusive of “all gender identities.”

  • Tells students it is “polite” and necessary to ask everyone how they identify and which pronouns to use.

  • Asks why “someone with a penis might not identify as a boy/man,” and instructs that gender is self-defined, not tied to sex.

The latest available data in 2023-2024 shows that PREP monies were awarded to the North Carolina School Health Training Center (NCSHTC) at East Carolina University to implement sex education in schools and other community settings.  The following counties were targeted:  Cumberland, Montgomery, Brunswick, Lenoir, Scotland and Pamlico. With the exception of Scotland County (which uses “Reducing the Risk”) every county uses sex education curricula which promotes gender ideology. Additionally, these PREP monies are also being used to implement sex education programs in violation of N.C. law which requires abstinence-based sex education, a law which, to date, has been ignored by most counties in the State.

North Carolina has been asked to remove all content related to gender identity and gender ideology from PREP curricula, materials, and delivery, and to submit modified program materials for ACF approval within 60 days, no later than October 27, 2025.

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