Pennsylvania School District Backs Down After Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions From Parents

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Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) say a Pennsylvania school district has rescinded a policy that required teachers to hide students’ social transitions from parents.

The Chester County Intermediate Unit 24 School District had a policy mandating that staff use students’ preferred names and pronouns at school while keeping parents in the dark. Teachers who refused to go along with the policy faced disciplinary action.

After attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom and the Independence Law Center sent a letter outlining the policy’s constitutional violations, the district backed down and rescinded the policy.

This is good news, but the situation should never have happened in the first place.

We have written before about how pro-LGBT activists have used public schools to promote transgender ideology and gender confusion to kids in many different ways.

Schools have been hiding important information about students from their parents. A New York school district secretly treated a middle-school girl as if she were a boy without her mother’s knowledge or consent. A Massachusetts school helped an eleven-year-old girl “socially transition” without her parents ever being told. And earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with parents challenging California’s secret gender transition policy — a strong signal that these policies violate the law.

Public school students should not be taught to question their gender, and schools should not lie to parents about what their children are experiencing at school.

Arkansas has been a leader when it comes to passing laws that block radical pro-LGBT ideology in the classroom and help prevent schools from socially transitioning children. Arkansas’ Given Name Act and other good laws protect children and affirm parental rights in our state.

Last month, Family Council joined an amicus brief defending parental rights in a federal lawsuit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, because federal court cases like it could affect schools nationwide. That’s why it’s important for us to stand up for students and parents in court.

Parents are not the enemy. They are the first and most important line of defense for their children. No school should ever be allowed to cut them out.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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HHS Report Exposes Alleged Insurance Fraud Surrounding Sex-Change Procedures Performed on Children

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On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a startling report exposing ways medical professionals and facilities allegedly profited from sex-change procedures performed on kids.

In a statement, HHS said:

“According to the report, more than 225 hospitals and health systems established pediatric gender programs nationwide. The report also analyzes nationwide claims data from 2015 through 2025 and identifies approximately $50 million in insurance claims for puberty blockers billed using endocrine disorder diagnostic code E34.9 (Endocrine Disorder, Unspecified). It further reports that nearly $11 million in claims for patients ages 13–17 were billed using a diagnosis code for precocious puberty E301 — findings the report says warrant additional review of insurance coding practices.”

In a separate statement issued on X, Vice President Vance said:

“For years now, some hospitals and healthcare providers have been subjecting children to horrific, experimental treatments in service of radical gender ideologies. Today, thanks to the Wolves in White Coats report released by @HHSGov, we know why: profit. It turns out that convincing vulnerable children to reject their gender can create patients for life, earning hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue per child.

“The report contains deeply disturbing allegations, and I encourage every American and every parent, to read it. More than just pushing these procedures on kids, hospitals and providers may have been defrauding Medicaid and private insurers by using misleading or fraudulent billing codes to get insurance to cover the costs.”

Over the past 20 years, the number of children who identify as transgender has skyrocketed — especially among biological girls.

Many hospitals opened “gender clinics” that prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids or even perform sex-change procedures on children. But public health experts and policymakers in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support these “gender transitions.”

These drugs and procedures carry serious risks — including infertility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density, and cardiovascular problems.

Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives.

Today we know pro-LGBT activists and medical organizations spent years citing each other’s work in a circular pattern, manufacturing a fake consensus about performing sex-change surgeries on kids.

Stories like these have prompted investigations and legal action against doctors and facilities that performed these procedures on children.

In 2021, Arkansas’ lawmakers passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Arkansas was the first state in America to enact a law like the SAFE Act, but since 2021 lawmakers in more than half the country have passed similar legislation. Federal courts have upheld the SAFE Act and other state laws like it.

This latest HHS report underscores that Arkansas’ lawmakers were right to pass the SAFE Act. Arkansans can be proud that their state has done so much to protect children from these dangerous sex-change procedures.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Unpacking the Supreme Court’s Decision to Uphold Fairness in Women’s Sports

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On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a good decision upholding state laws that protect fairness in women’s sports.

The ruling makes it clear that states can keep biological males from competing in girls’ athletics at school. It also clarifies that the word “sex” in Title IX means biological sex — not gender identity.

Below is a short overview of the ruling and what it does.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education and in activities that receive federal funding — like school athletic programs.

Over the past 50 years, Title IX has ensured women and girls are able to play sports in public schools, colleges, and universities.

But beginning around 2016, activists started reinterpreting “sex” under Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Under that reinterpretation, public schools could be forced to not only let biological males compete in women’s sports, but also let them use girls’ showers, locker rooms, sleeping quarters, and changing areas at school and on school trips.

In response, many states enacted laws protecting students’ physical privacy and safety, and 27 states passed legislation preserving fairness in women’s sports.

The ACLU challenged West Virginia’s and Idaho’s laws governing girls’ sports, and that lawsuit made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court — where they were upheld.

The Court’s decision protecting fairness in girls’ sports makes it clear that the word “sex” in Title IX means “biological sex” — not gender identity. The decision says:

“The term ‘sex’ in Title IX, the Javits Amendment, and the Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex. The ordinary meaning of the term ‘sex’ at the time of enactment in the early 1970s was biological sex and not gender identity, particularly in the sports context.”

The Supreme Court ruled  9–0 that under Title IX, states may establish girls’ athletic teams based on biological sex. The Court also ruled 6–3 that the Equal Protection Clause lets states establish girls’ athletic teams based on biological sex. In their decision, the justices acknowledged that there is a compelling interest at stake, writing:

“The States argue—and the Court agrees—that the interests of safety and competitive fairness are important interests for purposes of equal protection analysis. And the States’ sex-based classification—limiting women’s and girls’ sports to biological females—is substantially related to those interests. See Ibid. Schools may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex.”

That’s important, because other lawsuits in Minnesota, California, and Connecticut may consider whether the Equal Protection Clause requires states to protect fairness in girls’ sports or simply gives states the option of doing so.

We have written time and again about how women’s athletics is at risk of being erased in America.

For example, female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, volleyball players, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who claim to be women.

Letting men compete in women’s sports is unfair. It reverses 50 years of advancements for women, and in some cases it can even be dangerous.

Fortunately, educators, policymakers, and athletic organizations have taken steps to protect women’s sports.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) preventing male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision will help protect students and preserve fairness for athletes in Arkansas and in every other state that has enacted laws like Arkansas’. That’s something to celebrate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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