New York Attorney General Letitia James has secured a court order that blocks the Trump administration from enforcing a rule requiring states to censor sexual education programs by removing references to gender identity and transgender status.
Attorney General James released a statement following the decision: “Politics has no place in our young people’s health education. The administration’s illegal attempt to censor effective health education puts youth at risk and undermines programs that help prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Denying the existence of transgender and nonbinary individuals is cruel and wrong, and I will keep fighting to ensure young people get the accurate health information they need.”
The legal action began in September when Attorney General James, along with 15 other attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit challenged HHS’s threat to withhold tens of millions of dollars from two grant programs—Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE)—unless states agreed to censor their educational content. The new conditions set by HHS would have prohibited using grant funds for any programs that provide information about or acknowledge transgender, intersex, or nonbinary individuals.
The United States District Court for the District of Oregon issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the administration from enforcing these restrictions or withholding PREP and SRAE funding.
Attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia joined Attorney General James in this lawsuit.
