Equality Caucus Rips Passage of Republicans’ Don’t Say Trans & Forced Outing Bill

CEC Chair Rep. Mark Takano: “Republicans claim to be the party of small government, but they have no problem bringing the full force of the federal government down against children.”

WASHINGTON, DC — After the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2616, a federal Don’t Say Trans bill that would also require schools to forcibly out transgender students—even if doing so would put the student in immediate danger—Rep. Mark Takano, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, released the following statement"

“Republicans claim to be the party of small government, but they have no problem bringing the full force of the federal government down against children. The GOP thinks they can legislate transgender people out of existence with this inhumane Don’t Say Trans bill, but all they’re doing is making life worse for a small minority of already-vulnerable children,” said Rep. Mark Takano, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “I spent 24 years as an educator where I worked with hundreds of high school students and their parents. Most children go to their parents when they need help or are struggling—including transgender children—but not all parents are accepting. The forced outing provision of this bill puts teachers in an impossible situation by requiring them to out trans kids to their parents in certain situations—even if the teacher knows the student will likely face physical abuse. Students like these are who Republicans want to put in immediate physical danger with this bill.”

Read Rep. Takano’s remarks on the bill here.

BACKGROUND
The Rules Committee Print of H.R. 2616 passed by the House today, the so-called “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” combines two bills advanced through the Committee on Education and the Workforce in April 2025: H.R. 2616, the so-called “PROTECT Kids Act,” and H.R. 2617, the so-called “Say No to Indoctrination Act” (AKA the “Don’t Say Trans Act”).

Forced Outing
This bill would require any public school that receives Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds to forcibly out elementary and middle grade transgender students if the school wants to take certain steps to affirm the child’s identity, such as changing the child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form or allowing the child to use accommodations, such as bathrooms, consistent with their gender identity. The bill has no exceptions; a teacher or administrator would be required to out a student to their parents even if they knew this would put the child in danger of abuse. This section also requires parental consent for teachers to add a student’s preferred nickname to school forms, creating more paperwork and needless burdens on teachers’ and administrators’ time—an impact already seen in states with similar laws.

Don’t Say Trans
Additionally, this bill prohibits schools receiving Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds from using those funds to teach or advance concepts that recognize the existence of transgender people. Specifically, the bill amends Section 8526 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to state that funds under that chapter may not be used “to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology, as defined in section 2 of Executive Order 14168.” This Executive Order defines gender ideology to include the “concept of self-assessed gender identity,” the “claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa,” and “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one's sex.”

This bill would have far reaching consequences, including by barring any discussion of transgender people or topics in the classroom, banning books with transgender characters or that discuss the existence of transgender people, and banning Gay/Queer Straights Alliances.