US Attorney General Todd Blanche Condemns 'Secret' Gender Transitions in Schools

Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned what he called a “pandemic” of “secret” gender transitions in U.S. schools.

Blanche made the comments during a Fox News interview Wednesday, a day after the Justice Department filed a “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit accusing a Kansas school district of unlawfully facilitating such transitions without parents’ consent or knowledge. The district has denied violating the law.

“There’s not a parent in America — no matter where you live — that would want their school to change and call their child by a different name and not expect to be told about that,” Blanche said. Host Laura Ingraham responded: “I mean, I get a call from my son’s school if he has a headache.”

Sworn in last month, Blanche described undisclosed transitions as a “trend and really pandemic” occurring “in some school districts around the country.”

No federal data is available on how many districts have such policies. According to Defending Education, a conservative advocacy group, upwards of 1,200 school districts permit staff to keep “a student’s transgender status hidden from parents.”

About 3.3 percent of the youth population in the U.S., or roughly 724,000 people, identify as transgender, compared to 0.8 percent of adults, according to a 2025 report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

The Trump administration has undertaken a string of policies to combat what it describes as “radical gender ideology,” including by moving to defund what the White House characterizes as “chemical and surgical mutilation” for children. A number of advocacy groups and relatives of children who identify as transgender, meanwhile, have decried what they view as the administration's “chilling” and “dangerous” measures.

President Donald Trump himself has often claimed that schools are carrying out “brutal” operations, claiming without evidence that children go to school one sex and come home another after suffering “brutal” gender operations their parents were unaware of.

In a campaign speech in Wisconsin in September 2024, he said: “Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation,” he added. “Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

The topic of transgender children has largely divided Americans along party lines, polls show, with Democrats being far more likely to support teaching on gender identity and providing access to puberty blockers than Republicans. At the same time, 56 percent of Americans oppose health care workers providing minors with medical care for a gender transition, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey.

Kansas lawsuit

Blanche’s latest remarks came one day after the Justice Department unveiled a “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit against Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools “to stop the district from facilitating secret ‘gender transitions’ for children at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent.”

The Justice Department's claims pertain to socially transitioning, such as calling a student by a new name, rather than claims that the district had any involvement in medical interventions.

The department alleges that the district’s policies violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of students’ education records and allows parents specific rights to access those records. The suit also alleged the policies violate the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.

“Parental rights are paramount in the operation of America’s public schools, and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools does not know children better than their own parents,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a news release. “The Department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with federal law in the service of radical gender ideology.”

The district, which serves over 20,000 students, disputed that it had violated federal law.

“Contrary to the allegations in the Complaint, the district maintains that it is in full compliance with FERPA and PPRA and is disappointed by the DOJ’s decision to file the lawsuit,” a district spokesperson told KSHB 41, a Kansas City station.

“Because this matter is now pending in federal court, the district will respond to the Complaint through the appropriate legal process and will not make any further comment at this time,” the spokesperson added.

Earlier this summer, superintendent Anna Stubblefield clarified the district’s policies, explaining to the station that the district has “no reason or incentive” to keep information from parents that they’re entitled to.

According to KSHB 41, the district outlines five situations in which a student’s transgender status may not be reported to a parent. These include if the student is no longer a minor, has been emancipated or if there is a reason to suspect neglect or abuse.

The lawsuit comes after the Supreme Court, in March, ruled that California public schools cannot keep parents in the dark about changes in their child’s gender identity.