Tag: funded

HUD directs agency to prohibit trans males from federally funded women-only shelters

On his first day in office, Eric Turner made a bold move as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

He directed agency staff to suspend all pending and future enforcement actions related to the Obama-era Equal Access Rule, which required HUD-funded programs and shelters to determine eligibility based on a person’s self-identified gender.

Turner said that the move was part of President Donald Trump’s agenda to “restore biological truth to the federal government.”

“We want to protect the ladies entering any HUD facilities,” Turner told reporters Thursday, adding that he wants to “restore equal rights, but no extra rights.” The Secretary added that most of the females who utilize HUD shelters already come from domestic violence situations, and he wants to ensure that their tragedies are not exacerbated when they turn to the federal government for help.

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Trump’s newly confirmed HUD Secretary Eric Turner is rescinding rules prohibiting federally funded shelters from asking for proof of someone’s biological gender.

Turner’s directive follows Trump’s Day One executive order terminating federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and mandating the federal government only recognize two genders, male and female. This week, Trump signed an executive order preventing biological males who identify as females from competing on women’s sports teams, as well as another prohibiting minors from receiving puberty blockers or transition surgery.

Under the 2016 Equal Access Rule that Turner is rescinding, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and other federally funded HUD-assisted housing programs were prohibited from requiring people to prove they are biologically female. Following Turner’s directive, this will no longer be prohibited.

President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

In 2018, nine California women filed a lawsuit against a local women’s shelter in Fresno, which operates with public funds, for allegedly forcing them to take showers alongside a biological male who identified as a woman and who they claimed sexually harassed them.

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Last year, police in Greenville, South Carolina, arrested a transgender woman, Michelle Silva Perez, for stabbing a shelter employee after Perez was admitted to the emergency shelter meant only for women and mothers. The facility, which receives both state and federal funding, said it would have acted differently if it had known that the suspect was not a biological woman.

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A protester holds a placard outside of the Pennsylvania Capitol this week during a 50501 Movement protesting the Trump administration’s policies aimed at transgender folks.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

February 6, 2025
Supreme Court to consider an effort to establish the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation’s first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices.

The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond.

In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.

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Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval.

In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment’s provision on “establishment of religion” and the state constitution.

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation’s first religious charter school. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

“Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.

“However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case “is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice.”

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“The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can’t create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations,” Campbell said. “So, we’re going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations.”

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond originally challenged the school’s approval. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state “more educational options.”

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school’s approval, has previously said the school’s establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general “looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court.”

“I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans,” Drummond said in a statement released in October. “This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law.”

TENNESSEE AG OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SCOTUS CASE AFTER ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY’ REVERSAL IN LOWER COURT

The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court.

In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities.

Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Campbell said given the court’s previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is “hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here.”

“You can’t create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can’t be included,” Campbell said. “So, we’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well.”

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Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April.

School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice.

Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Haley Chi-Sing is a Writer for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at @haleychising on X.

January 31, 2025