BY: DM
Published 3 hours ago
Across five Texas university campuses this fall, discussions of transgender or nonbinary identities in classrooms have suddenly become off-limits. Professors are being instructed, sometimes through quiet emails and departmental meetings, not to acknowledge that transgender people exist in their course material.
The restriction applies to five public universities in the Texas Tech University System — Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Angelo State University, and Midwestern State University. Here’s a closer look at why the ban is being enforced.
The ban on transgender and nonbinary discussions came as a shock.
For the first time, a Texas university system has formally restricted classroom conversations about transgender and nonbinary people. “It’s such a blatant violation of First Amendment and academic freedom rights,” Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors, told the Texas Tribune. “There was no process. This just happened out of nowhere.”
The first sign of the ban appeared at Angelo State University in September. The West Texas campus, home to about 12,000 students, quietly instructed professors to stop discussing transgender or nonbinary identities in any class. There was no campus-wide announcement. Department chairs shared the directive through emails and private meetings. University administrators have also not issued a written policy, leaving many faculty members unsure how to proceed.
“People wondered, did something happen at ASU that we didn’t know about? Was there some sort of a legal challenge? Was there something more immediate that the administration was afraid of?” said Angela State English professor Linda Kornasky. “We weren’t informed about anything [leading up to the rule change].”
Days later, the Texas Tech University System made the ban official across all five of its universities. On Sept. 26, Chancellor Tedd Mitchell sent a memo directing every campus to prohibit teaching that there are more than two genders. In a letter to university presidents, Mitchell wrote that faculty must comply with “current state and federal law [which] recognize only two human sexes: male and female.”
University officials are backing the ban.
Administrators say outside authorities have tied their hands. In public statements, Texas Tech leaders cited recent anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation to justify the ban. Brittney Miller, a spokesperson for Angelo State, declined to discuss details but said the school is following the law as written. According to the Texas Tribune, the school is complying with President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders as assigned at birth, Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to “reject woke gender ideologies,” and House Bill 229, which mandates a strict binary definition of gender in state records.
University lawyers argue that these measures force institutions to adopt a binary approach to gender in all official capacities, including teaching. “In the classroom setting, you need to conform to what the law states. No other genders are going to be acceptable to teach,” one Angelo State dean bluntly told faculty during a meeting, according to a recording obtained by the Texas Tribune.
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