The Trump administration’s accusation that South Dakota’s federally grant-funded sex education materials contain “gender ideology” is not accurate, according to state officials, while advocates for transgender people are condemning the federal government’s demand to remove language referencing them.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent letters on the topic this week to 40 states, including South Dakota. The department said the states could lose a total of $81.3 million in remaining funds from the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP, if they do not eliminate instances of “gender ideology” from grant-funded sexual education materials within 60 days. South Dakota stands to lose $606,410, according to the department.

Image

The policy appears to target references to transgender or nonbinary people. Transgender people have a gender identity that doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. Nonbinary people don’t identify as strictly male or female.

In the letter to South Dakota’s Department of Health, the language identified for removal includes a definition of the term “transgender,” discussion prompts about why a person would identify as transgender, and an explanation of sexuality as “complex” and “difficult to define,” among other examples.

A spokeswoman for the state department, Tia Kafka, responded with emailed statements to questions from South Dakota Searchlight. She said grant-funded programming in the state utilizes material from Wyman, a nationwide nonprofit based in Missouri. Kafka acknowledged that the Wyman materials may contain content that the Trump administration deems objectionable, but she said the state does not include that particular content in the programming it offers.

“We are working with our federal partners to make sure that is clear,” Kafka wrote. “The state will respond to the letter within the 60 days notifying our federal partners that we do not have gender ideology concepts or terminology in our programming.”

Wyman CEO and President Allison Williams said in an emailed statement to Searchlight that the nonprofit’s curriculum is “a nationally recognized, evidence-based youth development program providing teens with the tools and opportunities to build life and leadership skills, strengthen relationships, avoid risky behaviors and engage with their communities.” She said the “curriculum includes 140 lessons centered in positive youth development providing flexibility in the lessons partners choose to provide.”

The four-page letter from the federal government says it asked the state in April to provide curricula and programmatic materials “in use or in any way relevant” to the grant program. The letter says the state provided the material, and the federal Administration for Children and Families reviewed it and identified content that “falls outside of the scope” of the grant program’s authorizing law. The letter goes on to provide multiple examples.

Image

A South Dakota Department of Health webpage devoted to PREP grant programming says the state has received the funding since 2010. The program “aims to educate young people on abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS,” the webpage says. The program is intended for youth ages 10-19 who are pregnant or parenting, homeless, in foster care, in rural areas, or in geographic areas with high teen birth rates. Additional program training covers topics including healthy relationships, positive adolescent development, financial literacy and parent-child communication.

The webpage says the state awarded a contract to Lutheran Social Services to implement an evidence-based program. A search of the state’s financial information website, OpenSD, yields two contracts identifying Lutheran Social Services as the sub-recipient of a total of $427,500 in funding for the program since June 2024.

Lutheran Social Services, when contacted by Searchlight, deferred all questions to the state Department of Health.

A program evaluation report published by the state department says PREP programming reached a total of 224 youth in Sioux Falls and Rapid City during the 2024 fiscal year. Locations for PREP programming identified in the report were Lutheran Social Services’ Arise East and Arise West youth centers, its New Alternatives independent living program in Rapid City, the Juvenile Services Center in Rapid City and Juvenile Detention Center in Sioux Falls, the Wellfully treatment center in Rapid City, and ACE Academy in Sioux Falls.

Samantha Chapman, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, criticized the Trump administration’s threat to cancel grant funding, calling it an attack not only on transgender and nonbinary people but also anyone challenging traditional views of gender and sexuality.

“The policy seeks to force people into narrow, outdated definitions of male and female tied to rigid, 1950s-style gender roles,” Chapman said.

She added that the policy will harm young people by denying them knowledge and support.

Cody Ingle, a doctoral student in public health in South Dakota and an LGBTQ+ advocate, said the federal policy reflects a misunderstanding of gender, science and public health, reducing complex identities to rigid, binary definitions. He said transgender and nonbinary people have always existed and that increased visibility today reflects greater safety and acceptance, not an “ideology” being pushed onto kids.