BUZZ
U.S. House leader Tim Walberg asks university for details on project funding, parental consent
The University of Minnesota was hit with a third federal investigation Friday into a project involving “therapeutic” dolls with “interchangeable genitalia” for gender confused children as young as 4.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, announced the investigation Friday into the MyGender Dolls, citing reporting by The College Fix and others.
In the letter addressed to the university’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health, Walberg demanded information to determine if taxpayers “directly or indirectly” funded the project.
A paper doll-like product slated to launch this fall, the MyGender Dolls allow children to choose different genitalia, clothes, and other accessories to help them “visualize their anatomy and genders,” according to the scholars who developed them.
On a website specifically for the product, the dolls are being advertised as a tool for clinicians and educators who work with children ages 4-10. The website says the product will launch later this fall, although it does not mention a specific date. It describes the dolls as award-winning, “play-based,” “gender-affirming” and “therapeutic.”
Quoting information on the university’s website, Walberg’s letter questions how developers used “community-engaged approaches to revise both the dolls and the therapeutic tools.”
In a 2024 post on Instagram, the university’s National Center for Gender Health offered to pay “transgender and gender diverse children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old” to play with the dolls.
He also asked for more details about the dolls being used in “clinical spaces” and whether that includes public schools.
If this is the case, Walberg raised concerns about parents being notified and given the opportunity to opt-out their children from settings where the MyGender Dolls are being used, as federal law requires.
Additionally, the Michigan Republican leader asked how the project was funded, noting a reference to a “generous grant and donation support” but no other details.
The University of Minnesota is a public, taxpayer-funded institution, but it has said the project was “solely funded by private donations.”
The House committee investigation asked the university to provide a long list of documents, including funding sources, communications between the project leaders and schools, applications by public entities to participate in the project, and other related materials.
The College Fix first reported about the upcoming launch of the dolls in July. The news, later picked up by other news outlets, garnered national attention, prompting a complaint from the conservative group Defending Education, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, and a probe by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
“Launching in 2026,” the MyGender Dolls website tells visitors.
“Grounded in gender-affirming clinical practices,” the dolls will be a “therapeutic” resource for clinicians and educators who work with children ages 4-10, it states.
The new website only includes a few details about the dolls, a years-long project by faculty at the university’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Some of the links on the site are not working yet, but there is a “waitlist” form that people can fill out “to be kept up to date about the MyGender Dolls.”
The Fix also dug into the project’s funding:
In 2024, the project won a cash prize from the university’s MINCORPS program, which provides funding of up to $3,000. The program is a part of the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub, which has received support from a grant from the federally-funded National Science Foundation.
According to the NSF’s website, the I-Corps program has received a total of $16 million to date. The grant was established to accelerate “federally-funded research into products/services that benefit society and create economic growth.”
However, UMinn’s program director for I-Corps Ashley Mahoney told The Fix in a recent email that the MyGender Dolls team prize was “solely funded through private donations for that program.”
The transgender doll project also received funding from the university’s Early Innovation Fund, which offers awards of up to $10,000.
According to its website, the prize is awarded through the university’s Research and Innovation Office. The Fix contacted the office on June 25 and 29 via email asking how the prize is funded, but did not receive a response. …
The project is through the university medical school’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Its 2024 annual report shows that the institute received $1.35 million in research grant funding, a 35 percent increase from the previous year. However, the report does not specify the sources of the funding.
MORE: UMinn scholars launching transgender doll project for 4-year-olds
