Dept of Education opens investigation into Minnesota over plan to target young children with gender-swapping trans dolls

The Department of Education has opened an investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education following reports that schools plan to use transgender dolls with interchangeable genitalia to teach children about gender identity.

On Wednesday, the federal department announced the investigation, stating it is examining whether the Minnesota Department of Education is complying with the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). The investigation follows a complaint filed with the Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office by Defending Education. In the complaint, parents alleged that they were neither notified nor given the opportunity to opt their children out of the activity, raising concerns that their rights had been violated.

"We are deeply grateful the Education Department is taking immediate action to protect Minnesota students from being subject to UMN’s appalling ‘My Gender Dolls,’” said Defending Education Founder and President Nicole Neily in a statement. “It is deeply perverse – and biologically false – to impress upon children that genitalia can be swapped out like Mr. Potato Head parts, with no lasting damage. And for the state to wrest control of these conversations from parents (while using their tax dollars to do so, no less) is truly insult to injury." 

The taxpayer-funded dolls have been described as the “first-of-their-kind” and are planned to be available in schools beginning this fall, including for children as young as four years old. The dolls have gender-neutral names and are intended to be a "therapeutic" tool to “make gender fun.” The company behind the dolls has said that they are "built to help children tell their stories and see themselves represented." 

The Department of Education noted that the use of sexually explicit dolls among young children in school “undermines parental authority” over their child’s safety.

“While Governor Walz and the radical left continue to funnel taxpayer dollars to perverted ideologies that can harm children, the Trump Administration is fighting to protect children’s innocence and defend parents’ role as the first and primary decision-makers in their child’s education,” said US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “No four-year-old should be exposed to such material – especially without a parent’s knowledge or consent. ED will enforce the law to its fullest extent, putting parents and families firmly in the driver’s seat of their child’s education.”