Professional trade groups that push “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” anti-Semitism, and far-left politics are still raking in millions in taxpayer dollars—despite a series of Trump administration executive orders—according to federal spending records. One such organization is introducing young children to radical gender ideology.
The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America, which represents over 200,000 gym teachers and health instructors, has received over $2.5 million since 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Defense’s educational program for children of American service members.
SHAPE helped draft the National Sex Education Standards, which set age-related teaching benchmarks.
According to the standards, students by the end of 2nd grade should be able to define “gender identity” and discuss the “range of ways people express their gender.” By the end of 5th grade, they should be able to describe the “potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender,” “distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity,” and “explain differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity.”
By the end of 8th grade, students should be able to define terms such as “queer, twospirit, asexual, pansexual”; various types of sexual activity, including “anal sex”; and “abortion,” according to the standards.
SHAPE did not respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for comment.
Despite the Trump administration’s many executive orders regarding government funding—and banning it from going to DEI programs, critical race theory, transgender studies, or anti-Semitic ideologies—many of these groups still receive federal watchdog group Open the Books (OTB) found.
OTB, which has investigated professional societies and their public funding, said the grant and contract descriptions often leave out references to DEI or other keywords targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency, which makes it harder to identify these organizations. But the watchdog group was able to trace some of the funding, finding potential conflicts with Trump’s executive orders.
Now, OTB is asking DOGE to take a closer look at the federal funding and activities of these groups, which critics say have gone under the radar.
“DOGE should continue its important work by highlighting for the public and policymakers ‘professional associations’ using this strategy,” OTB CEO John Hart told the Free Beacon. “Again, the freedom of assembly does not include a right to public subsidies, particularly when some associations promoting causes like DEI may be violating existing civil rights laws.”
One such federal recipient is the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), which represents environmental science teachers and has received over $15 million since 2020 from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Interior.
Some of the funding has gone to the NAAEE’s ee360+ program, which the group describes as a “cadre of environmental education leaders” working to “increase environmental literacy for everyone, everywhere.”
NAAEE’s prior depiction of the program, which described it as “promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in all aspects of our work,” appears to have been removed from the group’s public website since last fall.
The organization’s teaching guidelines focus heavily on racial and gender identity. One of the projects featured in its guidelines is called “This is Indigenous Land Camp,” which is led by “two-spirit (2SLGBTQ+) elders,” and helps participants “grieve climate change related losses through ceremony.” The guides recommend that youth programs offer “Gender-Affirming Sleeping Arrangements” and bathrooms.
The NAAEE has also hosted a teacher training program called “Decoding Whiteness: Racial Justice for a Re-imagined World,” which gives instructions on “practicing decolonized behavior, decoding whiteness, and engaging in regular anti-racism actions.”
A spokeswoman for the NAAEE declined to comment.
“We are not doing interviews, but focusing on our members who are finding the best ways to use education to create a healthier and sustainable future,” she told the Free Beacon.
The National Council for History Education (NCHE), which represents history teachers, has received over $3.8 million from the Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Library of Congress since 2019.
Some of that federal funding supported the group’s “Learning and Exploring American Democracy” project, which has hosted “Equity Summit.” The 2020 Equity Summit featured keynote speaker Hasan Jeffries—the brother of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.)—who advocated for the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue and other historical figures who were unrelated to the Confederacy.
“We’re not just talking about Confederate soldiers and monuments to them, we’re talking about all of these figures, all of these memorials that commemorate—that celebrate rather—white supremacy,” he said.
Jeffries also claimed that “racism is very much encoded in our DNA” and “racism and capitalism together are really that double helix of our DNA.”
More recently, the NCHE has opposed the Trump administration’s policies against teaching critical race theory concepts and sexually explicit material in schools and student libraries.
Neither the NCHE nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
Other “professional societies” funded by the government have taken extreme positions against Israel.
The American Psychological Association, which received over $11 million in grants since 2020, was accused of “virulent antisemitism” by over 3,500 mental health professionals in February. According to a public letter, the APA’s member listserv contained “antisemitic discourse, often masked as anti-Zionism, including statements like ‘Kudos to Hamas’ and calls for ‘Intifada, Intifada,’” and the group’s conferences featured speakers “notorious for antisemitic rhetoric” who downplayed “violence against Jews and Israelis” and engaged in “Holocaust distortion.”
The American Historical Association, which has received over $500,000 in federal funding since 2022, voted to condemn Israel for “scholasticide” in January. The American Sociological Association, which received over $1 million last year, approved a motion denouncing Israel and supporting “scholars’ right to speak out against Zionist occupation.”
For Hart, this is not an issue of free expression but of government responsibility.
“All Americans should cherish our First Amendment right of assembly,” he said. “If free people want to form an association of adult babies, or people who self-identify as cats, no one should stand in their way. But that doesn’t mean they’re entitled to tax dollars to grow their ranks.”
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