Trump Admin Sends New Guidance To All 50 States On Trans Kid Disputes
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has alerted all 50 states that affirming “biological reality” does not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law.
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“We sent letters to every state reminding them that children may not be removed from their home solely because parents declined to support a child’s self-identification as the opposite sex,” said Alex Adams, the Assistant Secretary for the ACF, in a video published by HHS.
“Removing a child from their home must be based on objective evidence or imminent risk of serious harm. So a state’s decision to break up a family cannot be based solely on a parent’s objection to radical gender ideology or irreversible sex rejecting medical interventions,” Adams stated.
President Trump highlighted the importance of protecting families from being labeled as abusive for rejecting gender ideology at last week’s State of the Union address. He told the story of Sage Blair, whose parents were denied custody of the Virginia teen for not affirming her transgender identity, as reported by The Daily Wire in 2023.
Parents across the country, including California, Indiana, and Maryland, have had their children taken away by child welfare services for affirming their child’s sex.
During the State of the Union address, President Trump called for further federal action to protect families from the harms of gender ideology.
“Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately,” Trump said.
The letter from the ACF appears to be an initial step in answering President Trump’s directive.
The letter reminded states that child welfare systems are supported by federal funding, noting the ACF has a “vested interest and duty in ensuring funds are used appropriately.”
“States have a duty to protect children from abuse and neglect while safeguarding parental rights and federal resources. Recently, ACF has received reports of certain states removing children from their homes because the parent disagreed with the rejection of the child’s sex, including sex-rejecting interventions,” the letter states. “States receiving federal child welfare funding are obligated to ensure that investigations and removals are grounded in objective evidence of harm or imminent risk, and that parents are afforded their full procedural and substantive rights.”
The ACF encouraged states to clearly define the terms “abuse” and “neglect,” saying these definitions should clarify that affirming a child’s sex and “refusing to condone sex-rejecting interventions” does not constitute abuse.
Several states have already taken steps to legally clarify that affirming a child’s sex is not abuse, including Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas.
Originally Published at Daily Wire, Daily Signal, or The Blaze
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