Over two dozen Republican attorneys general are defending President Donald Trump&#8217;s moves to keep women from being housed alongside transgender-identifying men in federal prisons.
Led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a group of 26 states filed an amicus brief on Friday in support of Trump&#8217;s executive order requiring prisoners to be housed by sex and halting funds for transgender procedures for prisoners. Trump&#8217;s actions to rid prisons of gender ideology currently sit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after being blocked by lower federal courts.
“Truth matters — and it’s under attack in our culture today,” Labrador told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “We’re standing up for biological reality, lawful executive authority, and the dignity and safety of women. If government policy or court rulings deny basic truth, it threatens both public trust and the rights of individuals.”
In February, a federal judge blocked the Trump&#8217;s directive to move transgender-identifying male prisoners out of a female prison, arguing that it violates the Eight Amendment&#8217;s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Two other judges have also blocked the order, including provisions ending funding of transgender procedures for prisoners.
Led by Labrador and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the Republican attorneys general argued Friday that Trump&#8217;s actions to keep men out of women&#8217;s prisons are not bound by the Eighth Amendment.
&#8220;The federal government is charged with preserving the safety of all prisoners in its care, and it has determined that placing transgender-identifying male prisoners in female housing intolerably jeopardizes female prisoners’ well-being,&#8221; they wrote in their legal brief. &#8220;So far as the Eighth Amendment is concerned,  the federal government is free to decide, as it has, that the best and safest solution is to house trans-identifying male prisoners with non-violent male offenders.&#8221;
The Republican officials also noted that there is a great danger that could be posed to women who are forced to shower and bunk alongside males.
&#8220;Housing transgender-identifying males with female prisoners presents its own set of risks. Those risks inure to the harm of female inmates, who  (1) have their rights to privacy and dignity compromised by having to sleep and shower with men, (2) are exposed to elevated possibilities of violence or sexual assault, and (3) will be pressured or coerced into using speech reflecting a belief that conflicts with  biological reality,&#8221; they wrote. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-trump-youth-prisons-transgender-house-young-girls?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Despite+Trump+Orders%2C+Juvenile+Prisons+Still+Have+To+House+‘Trans’+Men+With+Young+Girls" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: Despite Trump Orders, Juvenile Prisons Still Have To House ‘Trans’ Men With Young Girls</a>
They also argue that the Trump administration should be allowed to deny transgender procedures to prisoners because of the well-documented risks of gender medical interventions.
&#8220;Politically accountable policy makers are better positioned and constitutionally  empowered to decide if, when, and how those treatments should be administered, and the need for deference to the politically accountable branches is particularly high in light  of the medical uncertainty regarding the treatments’ efficacy,&#8221; they wrote. 
<div id="attachment_923535" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-923535" class="size-full wp-image-923535" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2149418788.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 24: Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador speaks outside the Supreme Court on April 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States to decide if Idaho emergency rooms can provide abortions to pregnant women during an emergency using a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to supersede a state law that criminalizes most abortions in Idaho." width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2149418788.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2149418788-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2149418788-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2149418788-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Labrador at the Supreme Court/ Credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.</div>
The brief was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Risks to women being housed alongside males are not abstract and are currently the subject of multiple lawsuits across the country. A California man named Tremaine Carrol faces multiple rape charges after he was housed in a woman&#8217;s facility. In Washington, former prisoner Mozzy Clark has sued the state saying it subjected her to multiple sexual assaults because they housed a man in her cell.
The issue is not isolated to the adult prisons as Obama-era regulations states could be required to house boys in all-girl youth prisons as well. As The Daily Wire previously reported, states must consider housing a juvenile male who identifies as a female at a women&#8217;s facility on a case by case basis or risk the loss of federal funding.

Criminal wearing handcuffs in prison

Republican AGs Blast Federal Judges For Keeping Men In Women’s Prisons

Courts

Donald Trump

gender ideology

Idaho

Prison

Transgender

House Republicans took major step on Wednesday afternoon towards codifying President Donald Trump&#8217;s efforts to protect children from transgender procedures during a marathon markup session for the &#8220;one, big, beautiful bill&#8221; working its way through Congress.
After a 26-hour budget hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a provision from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) that would block federal dollars funding transgender procedures. This means that Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, and Children&#8217;s Health Insurance Program money will no longer be allowed to fund procedures like removing the breasts of girls who identify as boys or putting children on cross-sex hormones, if the provision makes it through the rest of the reconciliation process.
The provision was included in the committee&#8217;s portion of the Trump-backed budget bill. In a video shared with The Daily Wire, Crenshaw said he believed that ultimately his proposal would become law.
&#8220;I think it will pass the House, I think it will pass the Senate. I think President Trump will sign it into law. Keep in mind, President Trump has already done an executive action on this, but it needs to be codified for it to really take effect. This is a huge win,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You got to protect these kids, the science is clear at this point.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Dan Crenshaw just made sure a ban on federal funding for any transgender procedure on kids is in the House budget bill.
Here’s what he had to say—after 26 hours of debate with Democrats: <a href="https://t.co/Yi4aP7heCs">pic.twitter.com/Yi4aP7heCs</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1922768711389188573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He added that it was &#8220;interesting&#8221; that Democrats did not introduce any amendments to block his provision while they did for every other GOP-backed proposal.
&#8220;They know it&#8217;s a losing issue, they know we won this issue. They know to stay away from it. Stay away from kids. Stop doing pseudo-science, scientific experiments on children who would be better off in therapy. We&#8217;re winning.&#8221;
Crenshaw introduced his provision at around 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, roughly 25 hours after the committee began its meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
&#8220;This will become law and I couldn&#8217;t be happier about it,&#8221; Crenshaw said. &#8220;Gender transition procedures are the lobotomy of our generation. People will look back on this period, I think with disbelief, I guarantee it. &#8216;Gender-affirming care&#8217; isn&#8217;t healthcare, it&#8217;s fringe science with no proven benefit and enormous risks.&#8221;
Democrat Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán (CA) referred to Crenshaw&#8217;s comments as &#8220;gibberish&#8221; and attacked Republicans over provisions meant to reform Medicaid.
Crenshaw proposed a similar bill in January. Now, the proposal from the House Energy Committee will go to the House Budget Committee, which will then combine each of the House committee&#8217;s budget proposals into one piece of legislation that will then go to the full House for a vote.
The Texas Republican&#8217;s provision was part of the House Energy Committee&#8217;s commitment to identify $880 billion in spending cuts. Another proposal from Crenshaw was an 80-hour-per-month work, training, or volunteer requirement for able-bodied, working-age adults without dependents to get Medicaid. Exceptions for seniors, pregnant women, caregivers, students, and those with disabilities were given.
If Crenshaw&#8217;s transgender procedures proposal makes it across the finish line, it would cement in law President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive order on &#8220;Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.&#8221; Trump directed his cabinet to ensure that no federal dollars were going toward hospitals or institutions that promote or perform transgender procedures on children.
Trump&#8217;s executive order called for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to look at ways to &#8220;take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children&#8221; including by examining Medicaid funding. The Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hhs-releases-damning-review-of-gender-treatments-for-minors-the-risks-cannot-be-ignored" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released a report</a> earlier this month documenting the risks of transgender procedures for children, including infertility, sexual dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease.
In the other chamber, Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) is pushing for his “No Subsidies for Gender Transition Procedures Act,&#8221; which would prohibit federal dollars from funding any transgender medical procedure, to be included in the reconciliation process.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw

Republicans Take Big Step To Codify Trump’s Battle Against Gender Insanity

Budget

Dan Crenshaw

House of Representatives

transgender surgery

Author J.K. Rowling announced in a Saturday X post that she may have found the most &#8220;bat-s*** gender identity argument&#8221; yet, noting that the latest gem she&#8217;d come across had brought the Catholic Church into the discussion.
Rowling&#8217;s efforts to stand for women&#8217;s sex-based rights and private spaces have provoked ire from the radical trans activist crowd — they&#8217;ve labeled her a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) — and they often target her on social media with the latest arguments aimed at shaming her into agreeing with them.
The attacks are so constant that Rowling doesn&#8217;t often appear to be shocked by them — she even said once that she&#8217;d gotten so many death threats that she could paper her house with them — but she admitted on Saturday that the latest one was new to her.
&#8220;You think you’ve heard the last word in bat-s*** gender identity arguments and then you see a post saying that using the new Pope’s title instead of his birth name is exactly the same as accepting that a man is a woman if he says he is,&#8221; Rowling said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
You think you’ve heard the last word in batshit gender identity arguments and then you see a post saying that using the new Pope’s title instead of his birth name is exactly the same as accepting that a man is a woman if he says he is. <a href="https://t.co/vJRSUw29dO">pic.twitter.com/vJRSUw29dO</a>
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1921238199197733149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When the conclave concluded on May 8, and the Vatican announced that Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago would become Pope Leo XIV, X was flooded with activists who complained that Catholics everywhere seemed to have no objection to addressing the pontiff by his new &#8220;chosen&#8221; name, but had a problem with doing the same for those who choose new names or pronouns because they identify as transgender.
A few critics other than Rowling pushed back as well, some of them noting that Prevost had not simply &#8220;self-identified&#8221; as Leo XIV to become the Pope.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald” UK Premiere – Red Carpet Arrivals

JK Rowling Says She’s Found The Most ‘Bat-S*** Gender Identity’ Argument Yet

JK Rowling Says She's Found The Most 'Bat-S*** Gender Identity' Argument Yet

Gender Identity

Gender Pronouns

JK Rowling

Politics

Pope Leo

Social Issues

The battle over women&#8217;s sports came to a head for women&#8217;s fencing on Wednesday in a heated congressional hearing where female fencer Stephanie Turner took questions alongside USA Fencing Chairman Damien Lehfeldt, who doubled down on allowing trans-identifying men.
Lehfeldt was subpoenaed to <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unfair-play-keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appear</a> before the House Oversight Committee’s DOGE subcommittee for the hearing titled, &#8220;Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.&#8221;
Turner was disqualified from a Maryland tournament in March for taking a knee and refusing to compete against a trans-identifying male opponent. She ultimately stepped away from fencing altogether.
&#8220;It took me nearly three years to get up the courage to come out publicly,&#8221; Turner told lawmakers at the hearing. &#8220;That knee I took in protest was a cry for help and an act of desperation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“That knee I took in protest was a cry for help and an act of desperation.”
USA Fencing athlete Stephanie Turner testified before Congress about the painful decision to protest being forced to compete against a male opponent. <a href="https://t.co/yVrD2XSB0Q">pic.twitter.com/yVrD2XSB0Q</a>
&mdash; ICONS (@icons_women) <a href="https://twitter.com/icons_women/status/1920193484700692625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Turner also explained how biological sex impacts performance in fencing, reminding lawmakers that it is a &#8220;combat sport.&#8221;
&#8220;There are elements of speed, power, reaction time, distance control, footwork and blade work — all attributes affected by sex development,&#8221; she <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Turner-Written-Testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in her opening statement. &#8220;It’s unbelievably demeaning to female fencers to put down the differences between men and women and any woman’s loss to a man as a &#8216;skill issue&#8217; or that a woman simply needs to work harder.&#8221;
Ahead of the hearing, Lehfeldt appeared to throw up a middle finger on social media, captioning the post &#8220;Game time,&#8221; but later clarified that he cropped his other finger out of the photo. The uncropped photo <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/usa-fencing-clarifies-chairmans-photo-which-caused-frenzy-before-hearing">shared</a> with Fox News showed Lehfeldt holding up two fingers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 OUTRAGEOUS: <a href="https://twitter.com/USAFencing?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USAFencing</a> Chair Damien Lehfeldt appears to give the middle finger this morning ahead of a Congressional hearing on the mistreatment of female fencers like Stephanie Turner—who took a knee to protest facing a male opponent and has since left the sport.
Unclear if… <a href="https://t.co/n4ELk2T4ue">pic.twitter.com/n4ELk2T4ue</a>
&mdash; ICONS (@icons_women) <a href="https://twitter.com/icons_women/status/1920144020506095987?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
During the hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) asked Lehfeldt whether he believes forcing women to change in front of a man is &#8220;abusive.&#8221;
Lehfeldt struggled to offer an answer.
&#8220;Congresswoman, I&#8217;m not sure I follow the question,&#8221; he responded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepMTG</a>: “Do you think forcing a woman to change in a locker room in front of a male is abusive?”
The silence from Damien Lehfeldt is LOUD… 
Absolutely reprehensible! <a href="https://t.co/hRpFnlnsDx">pic.twitter.com/hRpFnlnsDx</a>
&mdash; Independent Women&#39;s Forum (@IWF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IWF/status/1920191675353145463?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) challenged Lehfeldt to apologize to Turner to her face.
&#8220;Will you face Miss Stephanie Turner today? Will you look her in the eyes? Will you apologize to her for the way that she was treated by USA Fencing, standing up for women and girls, women&#8217;s rights, standing her ground as a woman who only wanted to fence with other women?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🤺👀 Rep. Mace asked Damien Lehfeldt, board chair of USA Fencing, to look Stephanie Turner in the eyes and apologize for how his organization treated her by forcing her to compete with men. HE REFUSED.<a href="https://twitter.com/RepNancyMace?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepNancyMace</a>: “Real men protect women, you are not one.”
Watch the clip 👇🏻 <a href="https://t.co/Iw8h1Lul5T">pic.twitter.com/Iw8h1Lul5T</a>
&mdash; Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPoversight/status/1920275466734231770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Why aren&#8217;t you protecting women?&#8221; asked Rep Eli Crane (R-AZ).
&#8220;Sir, from a fencing standpoint, it&#8217;s one of the safest sports in the Olympic movement. I know that you think that swords present some kind of danger,&#8221; Lehfeldt responded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Americans don&#39;t want MEN in WOMEN&#39;s sports. 
Why are Democrats so weird and out of touch? <a href="https://t.co/ztuqyJvgQS">pic.twitter.com/ztuqyJvgQS</a>
&mdash; Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepEliCrane/status/1920536098918281513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) asked Lehfeldt about his response to a mother who said she would move her daughters to a new sport over trans-identifying men in women&#8217;s fencing.
Lehfeldt posted his response to the woman on social media, calling her email &#8220;whiny,&#8221; and going on a bizarre rant to the woman, named Dorothy, in which he referenced “The Wizard of Oz” and told her the only wizard who could help her is “of the grand wizard variety.”
&#8220;I want to be crystal clear. That was an inappropriate message,&#8221; Lehfeldt said during the hearing. &#8220;I regret it, sir. I deleted it shortly after posting it, and I certainly don&#8217;t feel that way anymore.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Damien Lehfeldt, Chairman of <a href="https://twitter.com/USAFencing?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USAFencing</a>, has a long, ugly record of smearing parents who dare to oppose men in their daughters’ sports.
He brought lame excuses. I brought receipts. <a href="https://t.co/QMU8XjB68z">pic.twitter.com/QMU8XjB68z</a>
&mdash; Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepBrandonGill/status/1920230019164459185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lehfeld also doubled down in a response to a social media follower who asked him, “Are you okay with cis females being at a disadvantage?” Lehfeldt responded simply, “Yeah.”
After the hearing, Turner said she wanted to see some USA Fencing leaders resign.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to be pushing for people to resign, to be honest. I&#8217;d like to see some people resign for the comments that they&#8217;ve made, especially publicly, ones that are harassing and meant to humiliate concerned women, mothers and daughters,&#8221; Turner <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/usa-fencing-transgender-controversy-escalates-doge-hearing-social-media-regrets-calls-firings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Last month, USA Fencing said it might have to change its policy to bar trans-identifying males from women’s fencing.
“In the event that USA Fencing is guided to change its current stance in accordance with oversight bodies or federal legislation, the new policy states athletes competing in USA Fencing-sanctioned tournaments must compete according to their biological sex,” the organization <a href="https://www.usafencing.org/news/2025/april/18/usa-fencing-board-prepares-for-potential-changes-from-governing-bodies-on-transgender-and-non-binary-athlete-eligibility-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
“The policy will be implemented only if and when one or more governing bodies require these updates,” USA Fencing added.

PhotoFunia-1746809499-2

WATCH: Female Fencer And Trans-Supporting USA Fencing Head Face Off At Heated DOGE Hearing

Female Fencer And Trans-Supporting USA Fencing Head Face Off At Heated DOGE Hearing

Congress

Gender

Sports

Women's sports

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller went on an absolute tear during Thursday morning&#8217;s White House press briefing, reaffirming President Donald Trump&#8217;s commitment to ending &#8220;barbaric&#8221; child gender transitions — whether chemical or surgical — saying that they amounted to &#8220;child torture&#8221; and &#8220;medical malpractice.&#8221;
Miller began with the executive orders issued by President Trump early on — ending policies supported by former President Joe Biden and the Democrats that had allowed men to play women&#8217;s sports and change in their private locker rooms — and then pivoted to more recent moves aimed at ending all gender transition procedures for minors.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/StephenM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StephenM</a>: &#8220;It is CHILD ABUSE to change a child&#8217;s gender &#8230; Castration surgeries, castration drugs, sterilization treatments of children are barbaric. They violate all sound medical ethics. They are completely unwarranted. They harm children for life — irreversibly.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/AMNM6eXTau">pic.twitter.com/AMNM6eXTau</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1917934253418877091?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;This administration ended the Biden administration&#8217;s policy and the Democrat Party&#8217;s policy of allowing men into women&#8217;s sports, men into women&#8217;s spaces,&#8221; Miller began. &#8220;We are using every single legal and financial tool we have at President Trump&#8217;s direction to make it clear that schools and universities are and will lose federal funds, as you&#8217;ve seen in Maine, if you allow men to invade women&#8217;s sports and women&#8217;s spaces.&#8221;
Miller went on to say that the administration&#8217;s policies applied to every school in the K-12 system, adding, &#8220;The Department of Justice is also coordinating with state and local law enforcement to fight child abuse in our school system. It is child abuse to change a child&#8217;s gender, particularly if you do not inform the parents. In other words, if a five-year-old or a six-year-old goes to school, or a seven-year-old goes to school, and the teacher tries to turn the boy into a girl and a girl into a boy, that is child abuse, and this administration is treating that as child abuse. And it is a gross violation of parental rights.&#8221;
Miller then directed the message from the administration to hospital systems across the country, saying that they would not be able to funnel taxpayer dollars into gender transition programs.
&#8220;Castration surgeries, castration drugs, sterilization treatments of children are barbaric. They violate all sound medical ethics. They are completely unwarranted. They harm children for life — irreversibly,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;It is child torture. It is child abuse. It is medical malpractice.&#8221;

Stephen Miller

‘It Is Child Torture’: Stephen Miller Lays Out Trump Plan To End ‘Barbaric’ Child Gender Transitions

Stephen Miller Lays Out Trump Plan To End 'Barbaric' Child Gender Transitions

Child Abuse

Gender Transition

The Department of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rfk-jr-to-ban-petroleum-based-food-dyes?author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=RFK+Jr.+To+Ban+Petroleum-Based+Food+Dyes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health and Human Services</a> (HHS) on Thursday released a comprehensive review of medical interventions for minors experiencing gender confusion, finding that risks for such treatments cannot be ignored and are not supported by science.
The review identified a number of risks associated with intervention, including infertility, sexual dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease.
&#8220;Despite increasing pressure to promote these drastic medical interventions for our nation’s youth, the review makes clear: the science and evidence do not support their use, and the risks cannot be ignored,&#8221; an HHS press release sent to The Daily Wire reads.
&#8220;The &#8216;gender-affirming&#8217; model of care includes irreversible endocrine and surgical interventions on minors with no physical pathology,&#8221; the review summary <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/gender-dysphoria-report-exec-summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.&#8221;
It also determined that there is &#8220;no independent association between gender dysphoria and suicidality,&#8221; and &#8220;no evidence that pediatric medical transition reduces the incidence of suicide, which remains, fortunately, very low.&#8221;
The review found that the supposed benefits from medical intervention are severely in question and do not outweigh the risks. HHS also said that the perception of a &#8220;consensus&#8221; in support of these treatments is being pushed by medical associations, while dissent is stifled.
&#8220;U.S. medical associations played a key role in creating a perception that there is professional consensus in support of pediatric medical transition,&#8221; the summary review said. &#8220;This apparent consensus, however, is driven primarily by a small number of specialized committees, influenced by WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health). It is not clear that the official views of these associations are shared by the wider medical community, or even by most of their members. There is evidence that some medical and mental health associations have suppressed dissent and stifled debate about this issue among their members.&#8221;
The evidence for benefits from pediatric medical intervention is &#8220;very uncertain,&#8221; the review stated, &#8220;while the evidence for harm is less uncertain.&#8221; Thus, the review suggested, medical professionals should not offer them, even if they are requested.
&#8220;When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Failure to do so increases the risk of iatrogenic harm and reduces medicine to consumerism, threatening the integrity of the profession and undermining trust in medical authority.&#8221;
The review also recognized detransitioners, or individuals who received medical treatment for their gender confusion but later regretted such intervention.
&#8220;The voices of whistleblowers and detransitioners have played a critical role in drawing public attention to the risks and harms associated with pediatric medical transition,&#8221; HHS said. &#8220;Their concerns have been discounted, dismissed, or ignored by prominent advocates and practitioners of pediatric medical transition.&#8221;
Evaluating other forms of treatment for a gender-confused minor, HHS ridiculed the notion that psychotherapy could be deemed &#8220;conversion therapy.&#8221;
&#8220;There is a dearth of research on psychotherapeutic approaches to managing gender dysphoria in children and adolescents,&#8221; the department said. &#8220;This is due in part to the mischaracterization of such approaches as &#8216;conversion therapy.&#8217; A more robust evidence base supports psychotherapeutic approaches to managing common comorbid mental health conditions. Psychotherapy is a noninvasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions for the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria. Systematic reviews of evidence have found no evidence of adverse effects of psychotherapy in this context.&#8221;
The department underscored how minors and their families &#8220;require, and are entitled to, accurate, evidence-based information to guide their decisions,&#8221; and said this comprehensive review is for them, as well as policymakers, clinicians, therapists, and medical organizations.

Gender Symbols

HHS Releases Damning Review Of Gender Treatments For Minors: ‘The Risks Cannot Be Ignored’

Health

Health and Human Services

Medical Research

Non-binary

Detransitioner Claire Abernathy hadn’t even made it to high school yet when her doctors encouraged her to undergo a double mastectomy. Despite <a href="https://www.iwf.org/2025/04/28/new-identity-crisis-documentary-mother-and-daughter-expose-medical-industrys-transgender-manipulation-and-lies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">her concerns</a> about the procedure, her mother, Carrie, was told that affirming Claire’s gender identity was the only way to prevent her from killing herself.
Now, years later, both mother and daughter <a href="https://www.iwf.org/2025/04/28/new-identity-crisis-documentary-mother-and-daughter-expose-medical-industrys-transgender-manipulation-and-lies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opened up</a> to IW Features about how the medical system manipulated them into making permanent and irreversible decisions — the consequences of which they are still grappling with today.
The worst part? They’re not alone.
The Abernathy family is part of a growing segment of our population coming to terms with the damage done by gender ideologues. Hopefully, they will serve as inspiration for other families fighting not just gender confusion, but a manipulative industry that turns this confusion into profit.
The adolescent brain is a work in progress. We all know this to be true — after all, why else would we restrict young men and women from getting a tattoo until they’ve turned 18 or from purchasing alcohol until they’ve turned 21? It doesn’t matter how much a kid feels like an “old soul.” A young person’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, continues to <a href="https://hillcrestatc.com/teen-brain-development/">mature</a> well into their mid-20s.
Because teens go through this lengthy, often angsty developmental stage, they’re that much more susceptible to risk-taking behaviors and less capable of fully understanding long-term consequences. This is why <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one in five</a> teen drivers involved in a fatal crash had some alcohol in their system — because teens are more likely to underestimate the effects of alcohol on their bodies and overestimate their ability to drive inebriated. Similarly, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.soscij.2016.08.004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studies</a> show that as many as one-third of tattooed adolescents regret inking up their bodies. And unsurprisingly, <a href="https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/98697/dermatology/teenage-tattoos-are-most-often-regretted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> indicates that the younger a teen is when they get a tattoo, the more likely they are to regret it later.
So why aren’t America’s trusted, highly esteemed medical professionals drawing the same conclusions about so-called “gender-affirming” procedures? While comprehensive data on regret following medical interventions in gender-confused minors is still emerging, stories like Claire’s are proof that medicalization can and does have victims. At least if you cop some bad ink, you might be able to get it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/snl-pete-davidson-spending-six-figures-remove-all-tattoos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lasered off</a> later. But the permanence of gender-affirming procedures adds a sickening layer of complexity and potential for regret.
Teens might swear up and down they know what they want with their lives, like an unattainable dream job or goals to jet-set around the world childless and unbothered. But I’m willing to bet that teens can, and often will, change their minds. I know I did. If you asked 16-year-old Andrea if she wanted to get married and have children, she would have laughed in your face. And, if you asked her if she felt comfortable in her female body, she probably would have similarly scoffed.
Puberty is a really rough time for any young person. That’s not only something Claire expressed to me during her interview, but it’s a reality I have lived myself. I can recall the first conscious moment I felt insecure about my body: I was in elementary school, watching a movie starring young Lindsay Lohan, and I saw how her thighs didn’t touch when she sat down on a car seat.
<a href="https://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?page=fastfacts&amp;section=bodyimage">Studies</a> show that as many as 40% of nine and 10-year-old girls are already trying to lose weight, and as many as 70% of normal-weight teen girls <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/many-normal-weight-teens-feel-fat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">think</a> they’re overweight. Should parents of young girls who wrongfully believe they are fat indulge their child’s delusions and allow her to diet, or worse, get liposuction? If that sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is.
Yet, that’s exactly what the medical and entertainment industries are telling parents of gender-confused children that they must do.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Identity Crisis: Mother and Daughter Expose Medical Industry&#039;s Transgender Lies" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nj1OUvFZM4A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In my home state of California, $28,890,512 has been spent on youth “transgender” medical interventions, according to <a href="https://stoptheharmdatabase.com/state/california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">StopTheHarm</a>. Ethically speaking, plastic surgeons are supposed to assess the physical and emotional maturity of teen patients before they go under the knife for cosmetic procedures. So why does nearly every story of detransition reveal that medical professionals rarely, if ever, address underlying psychological issues — Borderline Personality Disorder, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, etc. — in gender-confused youth ? And why is it that the only solution offered by most medical professionals is for these youth to have their healthy body parts modified?
And what can parents realistically do? Carrie’s experience reminds me of the old adage: Mother knows best. She knew something was off when the medical professionals rushed to transition her daughter, but was guilt-tripped and persuaded into proceeding with medicalization.
Looking back, Carrie said she realizes she should have trusted her parental intuition. Parents are often the first line of defense in protecting their child’s well-being. They should feel empowered to trust those instincts, especially when it comes to irreversible medical decisions. Carrie said it best when speaking with me: “You are the expert on your own child.”
Indeed, the Abernathy story is a timely reminder of the very real consequences of sidelining parental concerns and the dire importance of scrutinizing medical practices that clearly prioritize profit and ideology over patient well-being.
* * *
Andrea Mew is the managing editor of Independent Women Features. She is the producer of its new <a href="https://youtu.be/nj1OUvFZM4A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documentary</a> “Identity Crisis: Mother and Daughter Expose Medical Industry&#8217;s Transgender Lies” and the author of the related breaking <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/detransitioner-and-mother-were-sold-the-lie-of-gender-transition-now-theyre-exposing-the-real-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feature article</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rear view of mother and daughter embracing sitting on bed

‘I Feel Robbed’: After A Double Mastectomy At 14, This Detransitioner Is Speaking Out

Medical

Opinion

Teenagers

Women

North Dakota Republican Governor Kelly Armstrong vetoed a bill this week that would have required school districts to keep books determined to be &#8220;sexually explicit&#8221; out of the reach of students, saying that the bill was a &#8220;misguided&#8221; attempt to &#8220;legislate morality.&#8221;
Armstrong on Tuesday vetoed Senate Bill 2307, which would have prohibited school districts from maintaining &#8220;explicit sexual material&#8221; in classrooms and libraries and would allow concerned parents and others to initiate a review of materials they believe may be in violation of the law. In his veto message, Armstrong said that enforcing the bill would be &#8220;unworkable&#8221; and infringed on free speech.
&#8220;While I recognize the concerns that led to its introduction, SB 2307 represents a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship. The bill imposes vague and punitive burdens on professionals and opens the door to a host of unintended and damaging consequences for our communities,&#8221; he <a href="https://northdakotamonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SB-2307-veto-message-signed.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
The legislation would have expanded on a <a href="https://legiscan.com/ND/text/HB1205/id/2789486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> passed in 2023 that barred public libraries from keeping sexually explicit books in their children&#8217;s section. That law also requires public libraries to have a policy in place to keep explicit books out of the children&#8217;s section.
SB 2307 would have expanded those guidelines to school districts, requiring districts to ensure that students were not exposed to sexually explicit material through physical books or online resources offered to them. Districts would also have been mandated to put policies in place to ensure compliance.
The proposal would have created a way for &#8220;interested parties&#8221; to challenge decisions made by schools, and given them an opportunity to appeal to an oversight board and the local state&#8217;s attorney. Local prosecutors would also have been given the power to prosecute for violations of the law.
The governor&#8217;s office told The Daily Wire it had no further comment on the legislation other than the veto message.
In that message, Armstrong called the legislation &#8220;redundant&#8221; and &#8220;overly burdensome,&#8221; saying that it could lead to &#8220;the next literary masterpiece&#8221; being kept out of North Dakota libraries. He also believed it would open up a floodgate of complaints for innocuous books that would bog down library and school officials.
&#8220;In today’s world of social media, streaming services, websites, cable TV and movies where profanity, drug use, violence and nudity are harder to avoid than to find, the amount of time, money and taxpayer resources spent on where a book is placed in a library would be better used elsewhere,” he wrote in his message.
The legislation had passed the Republican-dominated state Senate 27-20 and the House 49-45.
“We are harming our children, that’s all there is to it,” said state Senator Keith Boehm during a hearing on the proposal. “The bill is all about protecting kids from this material. It has nothing against adults.”
The issue of sexually explicit books has been a major concern across the country as parents have rallied to protect their kids from graphic material at both public and school libraries.
Armstrong also <a href="https://northdakotamonitor.com/briefs/armstrong-vetoes-north-dakota-private-school-voucher-bill-but-signals-support-for-competing-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vetoed another</a> Republican-backed piece of legislation this week. On Wednesday, he vetoed a school choice proposal that would have created Education Savings Accounts for private school students. The governor said that the bill failed to &#8220;deliver the school choice North Dakota needs, especially in rural areas where nonpublic school options are few and far between.” He asked lawmakers to send him a bill that would provide education vouchers to a broader swath of students.

Postmaster General DeJoy Testifies Before House Oversight Committee

GOP Governor Vetoes Bill Meant To Shield Kids From ‘Sexually Explicit’ Books At School

Education

North Dakota

School Choice

School Library

Medical schools nationwide are forcing students to promote left-wing ideologies on race, gender, and obesity at the expense of proper patient care, according to a new watchdog <a href="https://speechfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CRITICAL-CONDITION_Speech-First-Medical-Schools-Report.pdf">report</a> released on Thursday.
The comprehensive investigation, produced by non-profit group Speech First, examined 54 public medical schools across the United States, seeking to document how &#8220;diversity, equity, and inclusion&#8221; (DEI) mandates are being enforced throughout medical education.
&#8220;This ideological conformity is required not only of students but also of faculty, who are often tasked with serving as enforcers of these mandates,&#8221; the report explains, noting that ideological requirements begin as early as the admissions process.
The report, first <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/medical-schools-nationwide-promote-weight-inclusivity-in-ongoing-dei-push/">obtained</a> by National Review, found that 99% of America&#8217;s top medical schools now “mandated commitments to racial justice ideology,” while 89% “did so for gender ideology.”
The report found 30% of examined schools mandate a form of “weight inclusivity,” instructing future doctors to avoid “fatphobia” despite the <a href="https://newsroom.heart.org/news/obesity-related-cardiovascular-disease-deaths-tripled-between-1999-and-2020">heaps</a> of medical <a href="https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr-details/3420">evidence</a> establishing the correlation between obesity and health risks.
These DEI commitments manifest through “mandatory courses, rotations, orientations, statements, and policies,” and even modified Hippocratic Oaths.
As examples, dozens of investigated schools emphasize the impact of white privilege and systematic oppression on medical treatment, and have student guidelines enforcing adherence to a patient’s preferred pronouns rather than their biological sex.
At the University of Texas at Austin, medical students are taught to avoid stigmatizing language, replacing terms like &#8220;overweight&#8221; or &#8220;obese&#8221; with euphemisms such as &#8220;people with larger size,&#8221; while the University of Vermont&#8217;s program explicitly states that &#8220;weight is not an important indicator of health.&#8221;
At the University of Connecticut, for example, medical students must pledge to &#8220;work actively to identify and mitigate my own biases&#8221; and &#8220;specifically work to dismantle policies that perpetuate inequities, exclusion, discrimination, and racism,&#8221; according to documents obtained by Speech First.
The University of Arizona requires students to gain experience in transgender medicine, where students are “instructed that gender transitioning in children is normal, beginning with social changes in pre-adolescence and progressing to puberty-suppressing medications.”
Several harassment policies at medical schools now explicitly prohibit &#8220;misgendering,&#8221; with Oregon Health and Science University classifying it as a form of harassment subject to disciplinary action.
Medical school faculty face similar ideological pressures, as the University of Illinois-Chicago&#8217;s faculty manual states that &#8220;all College of Medicine faculty, regardless of track or rank, are expected to demonstrate a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.&#8221;
The report identifies multiple cases where medical professionals faced serious professional consequences for questioning these ideologies, including Dr. Allan M. Josephson, who was demoted and ultimately terminated from the University of Louisville after criticizing transitioning treatments for children during a 2017 Heritage Foundation panel despite a “stellar record,” according to the non-profit.
The investigation details how this ideological enforcement begins before the student is even admitted to medical school.
The University of Missouri asks applicants how they will &#8220;contribute to the overall diversity of the medical school&#8221; and &#8220;foster an inclusive learning environment,&#8221; functioning as what Speech First characterizes as a political litmus test.
Students, as well as faculty, who question these mandates risk significant consequences. Kieran Bhattacharya, a former University of Virginia medical student, was banned from campus after questioning a presentation on microaggressions during a 2018 panel. After challenging the concept, he was flagged by faculty as &#8220;antagonistic,&#8221; leading to disciplinary action.
Speech First&#8217;s study found that even the Hippocratic Oath has been modified at several universities, with the University of Connecticut School of Medicine recently updating the oath to reflect an anti-racist narrative.
“I will work actively to identify and mitigate my own biases so as to treat all patients and coworkers with humility and dignity. I will strive to promote health equity. I will actively support policies that promote social justice and specifically work to dismantle policies that perpetuate inequities, exclusion, discrimination, and racism,” the updated oath reads.
The report concludes with recommendations for legislative action, including banning mandatory ideological activism courses and ensuring medical curricula prioritize science-based teachings over politically driven health ideologies.
“If this continues, I’m horrified we’ll get doctors who will shove kids into gender chaos, favor race over health, and lie to obese patients, endangering us all for a deranged fringe,” said Jared Gould, research fellow for Speech First, per National Review.

University of Minnesota White Coat Ceremony, August 2022, Star Tribune photo

Med Schools Replace Medical Merit With Obesity Denial And DEI Doctrine, Watchdog Reports

Censorship

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

medical school

Obesity

U.S.

If you talk to any experienced and honest teacher these days, from elementary school on up, one of the first things they will tell you is how quickly gender ideology has taken hold. Virtually overnight, students began adopting fake pronouns and made-up genders.
To call this phenomenon &#8220;unnatural&#8221; would be a vast understatement. It&#8217;s obviously engineered. Teachers and school boards are pushing this nonsense on children who are far too young to know any better. The public school system has committed itself to indoctrinating children, in many cases without their parents&#8217; knowledge or consent. But after what happened yesterday at the Supreme Court, it&#8217;s very clear that accountability is finally coming for these ghouls.
After many years of spewing LGBT propaganda with total impunity, school districts will soon face major new restrictions on their ability to pollute the minds of elementary-school-age children. Based on how the justices acted during oral arguments yesterday, “Mahmoud v. Taylor” could easily turn out to be one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings of this generation.
Before we review the oral arguments, here is some background. The case began after Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in Maryland — introduced a new &#8220;gender and sexuality curriculum.&#8221; Initially, students (or their parents) could opt out of this curriculum for any reason. But after a short period of time, the school district claimed that it wasn&#8217;t feasible to continue allowing opt outs. So it&#8217;s mandatory now. To give you an idea of what exactly this curriculum entails, here&#8217;s an image from one book that children are introduced to.
<div id="attachment_911559" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911559" class="wp-image-911559 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg" alt="Screenshot: What Are Your Words?" width="680" height="446" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U-300x197.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Screenshot: What Are Your Words?</div>
This is what&#8217;s apparently known as an &#8220;LGBT storybook.&#8221; This one&#8217;s called, “What Are Your Words?” As you can see, one line of dialogue reads, “My pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is a nonprofit, reported on some other books that were included in this <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-scotus-back-parents-when-it-comes-to-lgbtq-storybooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new curriculum</a>:
<blockquote>[O]ne book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes &#8216;intersex flag,&#8217; &#8216;drag queen,&#8217; &#8216;underwear,&#8217; &#8216;leather,&#8217; and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to &#8216;make sense.&#8217; Teachers are instructed to say doctors only &#8216;guess&#8217; when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.</blockquote>
When parents of varying religious faiths — including Muslims and Christians — objected to the idea that their 5-year-olds needed to be taught about &#8220;sex work&#8221; and &#8220;gender transitioning&#8221; by Left-wing activists posing as teachers, the school district told them they had no recourse. In fact, the district slandered the parents as bigots. All these parents were seeking was the ability to opt out of this indoctrination. They didn&#8217;t even demand that the classes be removed from the curriculum. But the school district denied their request. So the parents sued.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1581-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Which brings us to yesterday&#8217;s oral arguments. I want to begin with this question from Justice Alito, because it gets to the core of the issue. Alito wants to know why the school district is so hell-bent on forcing children to read books about homosexuality, transgenderism and so on. (To be clear, that&#8217;s what the school district is doing. They&#8217;re not merely providing these books in the school library. Teachers are actively telling students to read the books as part of class.) The truthful answer to Justice Alito&#8217;s question is simple: The Left understands that, if the LGBT movement is going to survive, it needs to indoctrinate new members at a very young age.
But the school district can&#8217;t say that out loud, of course. So instead, the lawyer representing the Montgomery school district&#8217;s superintendent, a man named Alan Schoenfeld, starts talking in circles about how impossible it would be, at a practical level, for the school district to allow students to opt out of this curriculum. But nothing he says actually makes sense. It gets so bad that, at the end of his rambling non-answer, Justice Kavanaugh chimes in to confirm that indeed, no one has any idea what the hell this guy is talking about. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 alito, whats the big deal" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q118nmS1g2s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
As best I can tell, the lawyer for the school district is claiming that, because students might talk among themselves about certain LGBT books that are discussed in this curriculum, it&#8217;s therefore impossible to allow students to opt out of this kind of curriculum. In other words, whether or not students opt out, there&#8217;s a chance that they&#8217;ll hear about the materials that are discussed in these gay adventure books.
But this ignores a couple of obvious points.The big one is that, when a teacher is communicating a lesson to a class, it has a very different effect, as compared to one student talking to another student about a book during recess or whatever. The teacher is in a position of authority. It&#8217;s much easier for a 5-year-old to discount something another 5-year-old says, than it is to discount the wisdom of a 40-year-old teacher he&#8217;s told to trust. If this is an argument for anything, it&#8217;s an argument for not having these materials in the school to begin with. Which of course is the correct answer. But either way, it is not an argument against allowing parents to opt out.
The lawyer for the school district knows this but he can&#8217;t admit it. So he ends up confusing everyone in the room with a bunch of doublespeak. This kept happening throughout the oral arguments. Listen to this moment where Justice Gorsuch points out that, in Montgomery County, teachers are told to actively correct students who dare to suggest that men can&#8217;t become women. Gorsuch then asks the lawyer for Montgomery County whether this could constitute &#8220;coercion.&#8221; The obvious answer is yes. But instead of saying that, here&#8217;s the gibberish that the attorney comes back with:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 gorsuch, coercion, correcting himself" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x3sWOLDR4Q0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Justice Gorsuch gives an example where a student says, &#8220;a boy can&#8217;t be a girl.&#8221; And then the lawyer states that it&#8217;s not &#8220;coercive,&#8221; in any way, for the teacher to correct the student&#8217;s comment, in front of the entire class. He then changes his mind and says the opposite.
Even when he&#8217;s not contradicting himself, the school district&#8217;s lawyer managed to make a mockery of the entire case. 
Here&#8217;s his opening statement, for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 beginning with mr shonfeld" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkw27dw9T5g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Yes, according to this attorney for the school district, there&#8217;s no difference between teaching elementary-school students about wars, and teaching them that boys can become girls. Telling students about the War of 1812 is just like telling them that it&#8217;s totally reasonable to chemically castrate minors.
One of the ways we know this isn&#8217;t true, aside from using basic common sense, is that there&#8217;s no army of parents demanding that schools stop teaching students about wars. That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s understood that teaching students about wars is not a general endorsement of violence. Additionally, everyone agrees that history is important and useful because it&#8217;s grounded in reality. On the other hand, gender ideology is just that — ideological.
This lawyer was not the only person to embarrass himself yesterday. That&#8217;s a given. After all, Ketanji Brown Jackson was also in attendance at the hearing. And as you&#8217;d expect, she did not disappoint. Single-handedly, she dropped the collective IQ in the room by about 10 points, just by opening her mouth. And of course, she opened her mouth on the side of indoctrinating children, because she takes the Left&#8217;s position on every issue. Behold, Ketanji Brown Jackson&#8217;s argument in favor of mandatory indoctrination in public schools:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 can just go to private school" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y-FJrhGbwrw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Yes, you can homeschool, says Ketanji Brown Jackson. You can pay for an expensive private school. Therefore, there&#8217;s no &#8220;burden&#8221; on these parents, apparently. It&#8217;s not a &#8220;burden&#8221; to have to pay more money, and change your child&#8217;s school, because Montgomery County decided to teach LGBT propaganda. And then the lawyer representing the parents responds, and points out that she&#8217;s completely wrong, and many other cases demonstrate why she&#8217;s wrong. And then she goes quiet and they move on.
Here’s one more clip from these arguments, involving Justice Alito questioning the school board&#8217;s lawyer. He follows up on this logic, about how the parents can supposedly just go to a private school. He begins by talking from the perspective of one of these parents:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 alito, too bad" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hgRo17KtvU8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
This is what it looks like in the Supreme Court when &#8220;sparks fly,&#8221; so to speak. Alito is making his disdain for the school district&#8217;s argument extremely clear, which is exactly what he should do. They&#8217;re trying to force-feed gender ideology to children, and instead of owning it, they&#8217;re lying and telling the parents to pay more money to find a private school that won&#8217;t interfere with their religious liberties. But the Constitution doesn&#8217;t work that way. And it appears the Montgomery County school district, and school districts all over the country, are about to discover that.
This is not a close case. That&#8217;s why even the far-Left outlet Vox <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250422191725/https://www.vox.com/scotus/409921/supreme-court-dont-say-gay-mahmoud-taylor">reported</a>: 
<blockquote>The Supreme Court’s &#8216;Don’t Say Gay&#8217; argument went disastrously for public schools.</blockquote>
At the moment, the most likely outcome is that, when very young children are involved, parents will retain the right to opt out of curriculums involving gender ideology, or any other extreme ideology that conflicts with their established religion. Everyone can see this coming.
And just to underscore that, yesterday Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the largest teachers&#8217; unions in the country, went on Fox News. And she admitted, right away, that she wouldn&#8217;t read these books in the classroom. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Randi" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/luc0jWbW_HA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
We all know that Randi Weingarten isn&#8217;t saying this because she believes it. She&#8217;s maybe the most calculating political operative in the country, after Nancy Pelosi. But Weingarten understands when the Left is overplaying its hand. She knows that they&#8217;re on the cusp of yet another crushing defeat in their efforts to indoctrinate children, and she&#8217;s trying to soften that blow when it inevitably comes.
Unfortunately for Weingarten, the truth is, there&#8217;s no way to accomplish that. Gender ideology and LGBT activists, as we&#8217;ve discussed many times, are now extremely unpopular. They have alienated the entire country, to the point that they may have cost Democrats the last election. The only way an ideology like this can survive is by targeting children before they&#8217;re able to develop their cognitive abilities. That&#8217;s their only viable play. And in a few short months, after this case is inevitably decided against the public school system of Montgomery County, it&#8217;ll be much, much harder for these people to accomplish that.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Parental Rights Regarding LGBTQ Books In Schools

The Lawyers Promoting Child Indoctrination To SCOTUS Were Absolutely Humiliated

Books

Brett Kavanaugh

Children's Books

Elementary Schools

Ketanji Brown Jackson

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Neil Gorsuch

Parents rights

Samuel Alito

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Virginia

President Donald Trump has made it a priority to keep men out of women&#8217;s sports, bathrooms, and other sex-specific spaces. But thanks to little-known Obama-era regulations, states could be required to house boys in all-girl youth prisons.
Currently, states are barred from imprisoning juvenile inmates on the basis of sex. That means a 17-year-old boy who claims to be &#8220;transgender&#8221; could be locked up alongside an 11-year-old girl. States that don&#8217;t comply with these mandates risk losing crucial federal funding, making even deep-red states comply with the guidance.
Advocates tell The Daily Wire that Trump&#8217;s executive orders protecting women&#8217;s spaces may not automatically negate these rules. Unless amended, the <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/on/2017-01-03/title-28/chapter-I/part-115/subpart-D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">federal code</a> will continue to force youth prisons to consider housing transgender-identifying males alongside girls, raising serious concerns about their safety.
Amie Ichikawa, a woman who spent nearly five years in a California prison and now advocates to keep males out of female prisons, told The Daily Wire it was &#8220;disturbing&#8221; that juvenile facilities are blocked from making housing decisions on the basis of sex. She believes it&#8217;s even more dangerous than mixing genders in adult prisons.
“Kids in juvenile are extremely vulnerable, and to add mixed sex housing into it, that&#8217;s creating a totally unnecessary hurdle to have to jump over,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It’s setting them up for failure, and it&#8217;s just robbing them of any kind of normalcy or ability to focus on healing.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/on/2017-01-03/title-28/chapter-I/part-115/subpart-D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regulations</a> for juvenile facilities were first issued by then Attorney General Eric Holder in May 2012 and became law that August. The Obama administration touted the rules as a way to end rape and sexual assault in prisons. But in practice, these regulations could allow for girls, sometimes as young as 12, to be housed alongside physically and legally adult males.
For example, a <a href="https://ocfs.ny.gov/programs/rehab/assets/docs/prea/2022-Brentwood-PREA-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 audit</a> of the Brentwood Residential Center for Girls in New York noted that there were two transgender offenders housed at the facility. One was identified as a &#8220;transgender male&#8221; and another as a &#8220;transgender female.&#8221; Since the facility houses females between the ages of 12-18, this means there could be an adult male lodging in the same location with middle school-aged girls.
Under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) — which <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-108publ79/pdf/PLAW-108publ79.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doesn&#8217;t mention</a> transgender inmates — the Justice Department is authorized to come up with standards for prisons to end sexual assault at detention facilities.
Under the code&#8217;s section on juvenile facilities, prison staff are blocked from placing inmates based on biology.
“In deciding whether to assign a transgender or intersex resident to a facility for male or female residents, and in making other housing and programming assignments, the agency shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the resident’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems,” the regulation reads.
The prohibition is made explicit in a form used to audit detention facilities across the country for compliance with PREA. The form states that &#8220;if an agency by policy or practice assigns residents to a male or female facility on the basis of anatomy alone, that agency is not in compliance with this standard.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_909057" style="width: 2432px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-909057" class="size-full wp-image-909057" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM.png" alt="" width="2422" height="848" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM.png 2422w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM-300x105.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM-1024x359.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM-768x269.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM-1536x538.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-10.05.16-AM-2048x717.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2422px) 100vw, 2422px" />August 2023 PREA <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oya/PREA/2023-CampTillamookYTF-PREAAuditFinalReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> of Oregon&#8217;s Camp Tillamook Youth Transitional Facility</div>
While the Biden administration facilitated the movement of males into female prisons, Trump has taken a dramatically different approach.
Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> in January directing his administration &#8220;to ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.&#8221; The order says that amending federal code 115.41, a portion of the law related to &#8220;standards for adult prisons and jails,&#8221; may be necessary to comply with this directive.
However, it is unclear if this potential amendment of the federal code would include the juvenile standards that have been imposed on states, since the &#8220;standards for juvenile detention facilities&#8221; are found in section 115.342, a different part of the code.
The Justice Department referred The Daily Wire to the White House when asked for more details on any proposed changes to the code.
Lauren Adams, a lawyer with the Women&#8217;s Liberation Front, a feminist organization that fights to keep men out of women&#8217;s prisons, told The Daily Wire that just because the section on juvenile facilities wasn&#8217;t mentioned doesn&#8217;t mean it couldn&#8217;t be encompassed by the order.
“That specific direction to consider amending that particular provision, it doesn’t mean that they also shouldn’t also amend the other relevant provisions,” she said. “We can’t let juvenile offenders be dropped out of the conversation.”
Adams added that it was especially important for the federal code to be updated because of the ongoing lawsuits that have been filed by male prisoners across the country to stay housed at female facilities in defiance of Trump&#8217;s executive order.
&#8220;As we see these challenges and the litigation, the more we see that going through the courts, the more important it’s going to be to do regulation. We need to be able to have something that has the force of law. Executive orders are very, very weak in terms of law,&#8221; she said. 
The prohibitions on juvenile facilities assigning housing by sex were still in effect throughout the first Trump administration, a review of PREA audits reveals. That was at the same time that Trump revoked Obama-era guidelines in the Bureau of Prisons Transgender manual and mandated that sex be used for the initial determination of placement.
<div id="attachment_909689" style="width: 2471px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-909689" class="size-full wp-image-909689" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM.png" alt="" width="2461" height="800" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM.png 2461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM-300x98.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM-1024x333.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM-768x250.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM-1536x499.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-18-at-11.24.39-AM-2048x666.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2461px) 100vw, 2461px" />Screenshot: April 2020 audit of Elbert Shaw Regional Youth Detention Center in Georgia.</div>
Now, a few months into Trump&#8217;s second term, one juvenile detention facility confirmed to The Daily Wire that it has not received updated guidance on the transgender housing standard. A spokeswoman for Echo Glen Children&#8217;s Center in Washington, where transgender identifying inmates have been housed, said the facility has not received any new directive on the standard.
According to the most recent data available from the Justice Department, 26 states and the District of Columbia have fully certified compliance with PREA regulations, while 23 states have submitted an assurance that they will ensure compliance. Only four states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Utah, have declined to comply with PREA standards.
<div id="attachment_909133" style="width: 2194px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-909133" class="size-full wp-image-909133" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM.png" alt="" width="2184" height="816" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM.png 2184w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM-300x112.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM-1024x383.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM-768x287.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM-1536x574.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-17-at-11.07.25-AM-2048x765.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2184px) 100vw, 2184px" />Source: DOJ.</div>
States that don&#8217;t comply with PREA guidance are penalized with federal funding cuts. If a state is non-compliant with PREA, including the transgender housing guidelines, the Justice Department yanks 5% of funding for grants given to the states from the department for &#8220;prison purposes.&#8221;
This includes programs like the <a href="https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/sites/default/files/library/JAG-PREA-FAQ-2018_0.pdf">Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant</a>, the top source of federal <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/program/jag/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">funding</a> for state and local jurisdictions for a wide variety of areas, including law enforcement, prosecution, indigent defense, courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, and technology improvement. The cuts could also apply to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Title II Part B Formula grant <a href="https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/sites/default/files/content/ojjdp_prea_faqs_fy2015_5_7_2015_changes_accepted_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">program,</a> which funds juvenile justice system improvements.
State and local juvenile facilities are audited every few years to ensure compliance with PREA, and a review of audit reports reveals a focus on special conditions for transgender-identifying offenders. Even in conservative states like Tennessee or Georgia, facilities have to affirm that they will not house offenders based on their sex.
For example, a recent <a href="https://www.williamsoncounty-tn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/25617/2024-PREA-Audit-Report?bidId=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PREA audit</a> of the Williamson County Juvenile Detention Center in deep-red Tennessee affirmed that the facility did not have a policy of placing inmates in alignment with their sex.
<div class="page" title="Page 78">
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
According to the report, the detention center&#8217;s PREA coordinator stated that &#8220;housing and programming assignments for transgender or intersex residents are made on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the resident’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems.&#8221;
Special considerations were also made in the audit to inquire whether transgender identifying inmates can shower separately and the person&#8217;s sense of their safety. Auditors also have to ensure that faculty staff are trained “to communicate effectively and professionally with residents, including, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming residents&#8221; and &#8220;respect&#8221; their identity. 
Ichikawa told The Daily Wire that these kinds of standard auditing practices show special attention is given to transgender-identifying offenders while considerations of female safety are bypassed.
Ichikawa, who was incarcerated after being convicted of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, said that female inmates were never asked about their own perception of safety and well-being, in contrast to transgender-identifying inmates.
“Nobody in prison had that, so it&#8217;s not like they were reinstating some precious right that was stolen from them. They’re just providing exclusive human rights to this small group of people, and it’s created a huge power imbalance,” she said. “Everybody’s sense of well-being and safety should be taken into consideration, not just trans-identified. This is gender politics, it’s not even about safety anymore.”
When she was in prison in California, she said that she and her fellow female inmates feared for their safety when a male double rapist was transferred into their prison. They were never asked how their safety could be impacted by the transfer of a male rapist into a women&#8217;s detention center.
A review of PREA audits conducted over the last few years finds multiple examples of juvenile detention centers housing transgender-identifying inmates.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
For example, a <a href="https://dcyf.wa.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/prea-EchoGlen-cycle4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 audit</a> of the Echo Glen Children&#8217;s Center in Washington showed it was housing two residents who identified as transgender, though no further details were given. That <a href="https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/sites/default/files/pubs/JR_0008.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">facility</a> has both male and female units, and admits boys between the ages of 11-17 and females between the ages of 12-15.
An <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oya/PREA/2023-CampTillamookYTF-PREAAuditFinalReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> of Camp Tillamook Youth Transitional Facility in Oregon also showed that one transgender-identifying resident was in custody.
In the previously mentioned audit of the Brentwood Residential Center for Girls, the auditor interviewed one transgender-identifying male resident who claimed to be a girl. This resident told the auditor that he had never been searched or physically examined to &#8220;determine her genital status.&#8221; Under PREA, faculty can only determine &#8220;genital status&#8221; through routine physical check-ups or medical records. That resident told an auditor that staff were &#8220;respectful toward her identification.&#8221;
Women&#8217;s safety advocates, like Adams, say that federal code should be amended to allow prisons to implement categorical placement by sex. She also said that it makes no sense for transgender-identifying inmates to be given all kinds of special privileges that are not afforded to women inmates.
For example, she noted that in most cases, male guards are not allowed to search female inmates, while transgender identifying inmates can request either a male or female guard to search them. This means that a male inmate could force a female guard to conduct a search of him, raising safety concerns.
“I don’t know how we can say men are a danger to women when they are guards but not when they’re inmates, 
she said. “But they can be forced to shower with sex offenders.&#8221;
The battle on this issue is already ongoing at the adult level with multiple federal lawsuits in litigation over the placement of males in female prisons. It remains to be seen whether a similar battle will take place at the juvenile level.
</div>
</div>
</div>

teen behind the cage or woman jailed, unhappy girl hand sad hopeless at fence prison in jail, no free and freedom struggle teen concept.

Despite Trump Orders, Juvenile Prisons Still Have To House ‘Trans’ Men With Young Girls

Barack Obama

Department of Justice

Eric Holder

Prisons

In 2007, when Hillary Clinton was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/politics/26DEBATE-TRANSCRIPT.html">asked</a> in a Democratic primary debate whether she would be comfortable having “King and King” — a children’s picture book about a prince who marries another man — read to her second-grade child as part of the school curriculum, she responded that it was a “matter of parental discretion.”
It’s remarkable how far off the deep end the Left has gone in just a few short years.
This week, the Supreme Court will <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalApril2025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hear a case</a> brought by a group of parents claiming what Clinton argued years ago: Parents should be able to decide whether or not their children read LGBTQ storybooks at school.
Oral arguments will be heard for the parental rights case Mahmoud v. Taylor, which <a href="https://becketfund.org/media/religious-parents-ask-supreme-court-to-restore-opt-outs-for-pride-storybooks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">originated</a> when the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced LGBTQ storybooks to the elementary school curriculum and revoked its existing parental notice and opt-out policies. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian parents challenged the school district’s ban on elementary school opt-outs on the grounds that the policy burdened their constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
The diverse coalition of parents isn’t asking the school district to remove the LGBTQ storybooks from classrooms. They simply want the option to remove their children from the classroom when content is taught that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and that vocation doesn’t stop when kids begin to attend school.
The board of education added storybooks that introduce gender ideology and sexuality to children as young as three or four years old. These storybooks are transparently part of an activist push to introduce children to same-sex relationships, transgender ideology, and LGBTQ vocabulary at a startlingly young age.
“Born Ready” features a female main character who repeatedly claims, “Inside, I’m a boy,” and whose parents immediately start treating her like a boy. “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love,” Penelope’s mom tells her confused older brother. The book’s author, Jodie Patterson, serves on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical LGBTQ advocacy group.
Another book in the Montgomery County curriculum, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">titled</a> “My Rainbow,” is about a transgender-identifying boy’s desire to have long hair to fit in with “cisgender girls.” Trinity Neal, a transgender-identifying boy, and his mother, DeShanna, a nonbinary activist, wrote the story based on their experiences. DeShanna <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">advocated</a> for Medicaid coverage of Trinity’s puberty blockers, resulting in the first Medicaid coverage of transgender medical procedures in their home state of Delaware. Subsequently, Trinity <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">became</a> the first minor in the state to change his birth certificate’s gender marker from male to female.
“Jacob’s Room to Choose,” about a cross-dressing boy whose school accommodates him by abolishing gendered bathrooms, was <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">published</a> through the American Psychological Association’s children’s book imprint. APA has prominently <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/02/policy-supporting-transgender-nonbinary#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAPA%20also%20affirms%20the%20essential,appropriate%20youth%20self%2Dadvocacy.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> transgender medical procedures for minors and advocated for so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The other books at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor are similarly written at an elementary school reading level but focus on complex adult topics of sexuality and gender identity. “Love, Violet” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">focuses</a> on a same-sex relationship between elementary school classmates. “Pride Puppy” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">instructs</a> readers to identify leather, underwear, a lip ring, an intersex flag, and a drag king in its illustrations.
“What Are Your Words?” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">encourages</a> kids to change their pronouns, promoting confusing pairs like “ey/em,” “ze/zir,” and “xe/xir,” and using they/them pronouns to refer to individuals in the story. And “Intersection Allies,” another book <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">featured</a> in the case, includes a foreword by critical race theorist and activist Kimberle Crenshaw.
These storybooks are examples of radical propaganda written by progressive activists to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation. Kids may not know better than to believe what they’re taught, but American adults aren’t so convinced by these woke storybooks. Only 3% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that instruction on human sexuality and gender identity is appropriate for pre-K or kindergarten-aged children. And 77% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality instruction.
Just a few years ago, I pulled my children out of Fairfax County Schools because of the progressive garbage they were being exposed to in their classrooms on a daily basis. My family is not alone. There is a large movement of parents who have made the same decision we have, but not every family is in a position to do so. Parents should undoubtedly have the right to opt their children out of reading these radical activist storybooks: Children are not wards of the state.
When public schools add storybooks that teach gender ideology as truth, the state has violated the right of parents to raise their children in their religious tradition, along with teaching them the corresponding religious beliefs about gender, human sexuality, and the meaning of marriage.
The government has no business mandating that elementary students learn radical gender ideology. Fortunately, parents will do whatever it takes to protect their children and exercise their parental rights — even if it means taking the case to the Supreme Court.
* * *
Terry Schilling is a parental rights advocate and president of the American Principles Project.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Menu