A classroom at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday that would require parental consent before a public elementary or middle school can update a student’s pronouns, gender markers or preferred name on records in order to receive federal funding.
The measure — which succeeded 217-198 — would also bar federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that provides federal aid to schools from being used “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology.”
Eight Democrats broke ranks with their party to vote for the Republican-led effort, including: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, Laura Gillen of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Eugene Vindman of Virginia.
Fifteen House members did not vote.
Parental consent
The bill would also require schools to get permission from parents before changing “sex-based accommodations” to allow a student to access a locker room or bathroom consistent with their gender identity.
Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, said during floor debate the measure “takes monumental strides to restore parental rights and educational sanity.”
The bill “affirms the right of parents to be in charge of their children’s upbringing and ensures schools remain partners in a child’s education” and “also establishes clear guardrails to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to support learning, not indoctrinate kids in radical ideology and agendas,” the Michigan Republican added.
Walberg led the bill alongside Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican who brought forth a separate measure that was later looped in and bars the use of federal funds “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology.”
The bill draws on a definition of “gender ideology” in a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The order defines “gender ideology” as “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.”
GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted in a fact sheet that “gender ideology” is “an inaccurate term deployed by opponents to undermine and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary people.”
House Dems, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups blast bill
Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Education and Workforce panel, blasted the measure during floor debate, saying it would “impose a rigid federal mandate that ignores context, disregards students’ safety and prioritizes politics over people.”
The Virginia Democrat noted that the bill “bars any discussion of transgender people or topics in the classroom, including “banning books with transgender characters” or discussing “the existence of transgender people.”
Scott noted that the bill “takes away state and local control of curriculum on education — the very thing that the current administration claims they’re giving back to states by illegally dismantling the Department of Education.”
Fears students will be outed
Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, criticized the legislation ahead of floor debate as the “Don’t say trans bill.”
The California Democrat told States Newsroom he was concerned the measure would force school officials to out students to their parents, regardless of whether the official knew the student could suffer harm.
Takano, who also sits on the House education panel, also expressed concern that in the case where parents are supportive of their child using different pronouns, “if the teacher uses a different pronoun, that could be interpreted as ‘promoting gender ideology.’”
He said “we can’t discount that this administration will use a maximalist interpretation of the law, which would make even the case where” a student with supportive parents of trans children “could not go by the preferred nickname.”
David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, condemned the bill as “cruel” and noted the LGBTQ+ advocacy group was “prepared to fight it,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom ahead of the vote.
“Trans kids are not a political agenda — they are students who deserve safety and affirmation at school like anyone else,” Stacy added.
“Despite the many pressing issues facing our nation, House Republicans continue their bizarre obsession with trans people,” he said.
