Sixteen states and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit September 26 accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully threatening to cut sexual-education grants unless schools remove references to transgender and gender-diverse students.

The suit, lodged in US District Court in Oregon, argues that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is attempting to “rewrite sexual-health curricula to erase entire categories of students,” calling the policy a direct attack on transgender youth. The states say the new grant conditions violate federal law, the separation of powers and Congress’s spending authority.

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, his administration has sought to define gender strictly as male or female. In August, HHS warned states they had 60 days to eliminate what it calls “gender ideology” from programs funded through the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program—federal grants used to teach contraception, abstinence and disease prevention.

California has already lost a $12 million PREP grant after refusing to comply, and the plaintiff states say they collectively face the loss of at least $35 million. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said HHS demanded his state remove a curriculum line stating that “people of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to know how to prevent pregnancy and STIs.”

Oregon, Washington and Minnesota are leading the coalition, which also includes Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.