Justice Department Opens Investigations into Three Michigan School Districts for Required Instruction on Sexual Orientation and Gender Ideology in Pre-K-12 Schools

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched investigations into three Michigan public school districts: the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, and the Lansing School District (the Michigan School Districts), to determine whether they have included sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any class for grades pre-K-12. If they are teaching SOGI-related content, the investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. The investigation will also assess whether the Michigan School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex. “This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Supreme Court precedent is clear: parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children, which includes exempting them from ideological instruction which conflicts with their families’ sincerely held religious beliefs. And Title IX demands that we guard the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens—our children—by ensuring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.” The investigations will examine whether these Michigan School Districts, which are recipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding are adhering to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. 522 (2025). The Civil Rights Division has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigations.