HHS threatens to pull $764,000 in sex ed funding for Nebraska because of curriculum

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Trump administration is threatening to cut federal sex education funding to Nebraska over content that it says promotes “gender ideology.”

On Tuesday, the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services sent letters to 40 states and six territories, instructing them to change their curriculum.

If they don’t do so by Oct. 27, the administration said it would end states’ Personal Responsibility Education Program grants.

The program teaches students about both abstinence and contraception in an effort to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Nebraska is at risk of losing $764,118.

HHS said two sections of Nebraska’s curriculum refer to gender identity.

One makes a distinction between biological sex and gender identity, defining the terms transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary.

HHS said this was not the intent of the law creating the grants.

“The statute includes no mention of gender ideology, which is both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects described” in the law, the letter to Nebraska says.