Attorney General James Wins Court Order Protecting Health Education Programs

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after winning a court order preventing the Trump administration from enforcing its illegal requirement for states to censor sexual education programs to erase references to gender identity and transgender status: 

“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.”

In September, Attorney General James and 15 other attorneys general sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars from two highly effective sexual education grant programs, the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE), unless states agree to censor their curricula and programming. HHS had changed the conditions for awarding PREP and SRAE funds to prohibit using grant funds for any programs that provide information about or acknowledge the existence of transgender, intersex, or nonbinary people. The United States District Court for the District of Oregon issued a preliminary injunction barring the administration from enforcing its discriminatory conditions and withholding PREP and SRAE funds.

Joining Attorney General James in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.