Democrat-controlled states sue Trump admin over defunding of gender ideology

Democratic attorneys general from 12 states are suing the Trump administration in hopes of barring the Department of Health and Human Services from defunding various gender ideology initiatives.

President Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to gender ideology on his first day back in office, declaring in Executive Order 14168, "It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality."

James noted that in New York alone, over $80 billion in funding is at risk because of the requirement that applicants comply with the president's reality-affirming order.

In addition to requiring every agency to use the term "sex" and not "gender" in federal policies and documentation, the order tasked each federal agency with ensuring that federal grant funds "do not promote gender ideology."

Pursuant to the EO, the HHS released guidance to the U.S. government, the public, and external partners that sex is an immutable biological classification and that there are only two sexes, male and female.

The HHS also issued a new policy statement indicating that recipients of health, education, and research grants subject to Title IX requirements must be "compliant with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ... including the requirements set forth in Presidential Executive Order 14168 titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."

The Democrat-run states of California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington claim in their new lawsuit that the HHS' enforcement of the directives in Trump's EO violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the guarantee of separation of powers, and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

RELATED: 'Not medicine — it's malpractice': Trump HHS buries child sex-change regime with damning report

Luis Soto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

According to the states, the grant conditions are "impermissibly retroactive because they alter conditions attached to the funds Congress duly appropriated to HHS by imposing new conditions on existing appropriations of federal funds to the States."

They further alleged that the conditions not only constitute an attempt on the part of the HHS to unilaterally amend Title IX but are discriminatory, serving to "exclude transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender-diverse individuals and make denial of their existence official policy."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who was barred last month from enforcing laws that keep parents in the dark about whether their kids are masquerading as members of the opposite sex at school — said in a statement, "HHS has overstepped its constitutional authority and ignored proper procedures in an attempt to codify its hateful agenda."

New York Attorney General Letitia James made clear what's at risk for each Democratic state: tens of billions of dollars in grant funding to ideologically captive institutions. James noted that in New York alone, over $80 billion in funding is at risk because of the requirement that applicants comply with the president's reality-affirming order.

James suggested that the directive was "cruel and unjust."

The Democrat-controlled states want the federal court in Rhode Island to declare the policy unlawful and to block the HHS from enforcing it.

Blaze News has reached out to the HHS for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!