(The College Fix) — A University of Minnesota “transgender” doll project slated to launch later this year for children as young as 4 is now facing a federal investigation, the U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday.
The announcement came after Defending Education, an advocacy group that works to end transgender political agendas in public schools, filed a complaint Tuesday, alleging the “MyGender Dolls” project may violate students’ privacy and parents’ constitutional rights.
The federal investigation names the Minnesota Department of Education and the “MyGender Dolls,” a paper doll-like product developed at the University of Minnesota for “trans and gender diverse children — and the clinicians who support them.”
The dolls include “removable, interchangeable internal and external genitalia, gender-neutral names, and clothing (including undergarments) for both sexes,” according to the department.
“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated in a news release.
“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,” McMahon stated.
As The College Fix first reported earlier this month, the “MyGender Dolls” website says the product will be available later this year as a “therapeutic” resource for “clinicians and educators” who work with children ages 4 to 10.
A subsequent report by the New York Post suggested the dolls “will debut in some Minnesota classrooms this fall.” However, details about how and where the dolls will be used are unclear, and the project creators have not returned requests for comment from The Fix and other news outlets.
The Defending Education complaint, filed against the state of Minnesota, points to information on the project website stating that the dolls “will be available to school counselors, educators, mental health providers, pediatricians, and others.”
However, “Minnesota parents in Defending Education’s network have not been informed about MyGender Dolls’ forthcoming launch in their children’s schools, nor is DE aware of any such communications being sent to any Minnesota parents or school board members,” the organization stated in a news release.
The federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment bans public schools from requiring students to disclose information about their “sex, behavior, or attitudes” or “mental or psychological problems,” according to Defending Education.
Additionally, schools must inform parents and offer them the chance to opt their child out of the activity, and Minnesota does not appear to be doing that, the complaint states.
The organization also expressed alarm that the project targets young children.
“When schools use materials that ‘present as a settled matter a hotly contested view of sex and gender that sharply conflicts with the’ views ‘that the parents wish to instill in their children,’ they burden those constitutionally protected parental rights,” Defending Education states in its news release.
“The danger is especially great when controversial materials are ‘presented to young children by authority figures in elementary school classrooms’ …” it states.
The organization’s leader, Nicole Neily, thanked the Department of Education for taking swift action on the matter.
“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,” Neily said in a statement provided to The Fix via email. “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.”
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health have been working on the “transgender” dolls for several years.
As The Fix reported earlier this month:
“Previously, the university had a webpage dedicated to the project, but it was removed at some point after The College Fix first reported on it in December 2024.
According to the page, MyGender Dolls mimic classic paper dolls, featuring drawings of children of different ages, shapes, and skin colors to represent ‘all’ kids. Children will be able to choose different internal and external genitals, clothes, and other accessories to help them ‘visualize their anatomy and genders,’ the page stated.
The new website has several images of the dolls, including one that appears to be a boy wearing a dress. It states that the dolls will include a base, expansion pack, and training materials.”
The project also prompted concerns from a leading pediatrician.
Dr. Quentin Van Meter, immediate past president of the American College of Pediatricians, told The Fix that the dolls are “just a grooming tool” and “have no place in an ethical medical care world.”
Van Meter said children ages of 3 to 7 who are persuaded into believing that sex can be changed will become “confused” and “vulnerable to anxiety.”
According to Defending Education’s complaint, the doll project was “developed in part through the [UMinn] Early Innovation Fund,” a “taxpayer-funded development program supported by Gov. Tim Walz.”
Fox News reports more on the project’s ties to Gov. Walz:
“In 2023, the University of Minnesota’s ISGH presented Walz with the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Champion Award ‘for his outstanding efforts in protecting sexual and reproductive health care (PRO Act, HF 1) and gender-affirming health care (Executive Order 23-03) in Minnesota,’ the school wrote in its annual report in 2023.
Of the three faculty members presenting him his award, one was [University of Minnesota Medical School faculty member G. Nic] Rider, a co-creator of MyGenderDolls.”
This article was originally published by The College Fix and reprinted here with permission.
Micaiah Bilger | The College Fix
Micaiah Bilger is an assistant editor at The College Fix.
