DOJ investigates Illinois schools over secret gender transitions, ideology

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! President Donald Trump's Justice Department is continuing its investigatory crackdown on left-wing ideology in schools, homing in on one of the biggest blue states renowned for its activist teachers unions.The DOJ announced an investigation into 36 Illinois school districts over whether they allowed parents to opt their children out of instruction involving sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI)."What we've learned is that Illinois has a comprehensive sex education and LGBTQ education regime for its public schools, and it appears that it does not allow for parental opt-outs, so these are mandatory topics," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told Fox News in an exclusive interview."If the schools are mandating this and not allowing parents the opportunity to opt out of content that may be inappropriate for them based on religion or values, they would be afoul of that Supreme Court precedent," Dhillon said. "And so we have reason to believe that these school districts in Illinois are not obeying the law and we're going to look into that."EDUCATION DEPT LAUNCHES 18 TITLE IX PROBES AFTER SCOTUS HEARS ARGUMENTS IN EFFORTS TO PROTECT WOMEN'S SPORTS Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights