FROM TEXAS TRIBUNE: In a first for Texas higher education, the Texas Tech University System has ordered faculty across its five universities to limit classroom discussion of transgender and nonbinary identities, but gave little guidance on how academic endeavors or instruction should proceed.
The vague directive rattled Texas Tech students and professors, many of whom expressed fear that they will face academic or professional repercussions for pushing back. Free speech groups quickly characterized the unclear limits as unconstitutional censorship. And LGBTQ+ advocates said the move will only further marginalize already-vulnerable trans and nonbinary students and faculty.
Texas Tech Chancellor Tedd Mitchell late Thursday said that when faculty are acting as employees and instructors, they must follow President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders as assigned at birth, Gov. Greg Abbott’s letter directing state agencies to “reject woke gender ideologies” and House Bill 229 requiring a strict binary definition of gender for the collection of vital statistics.
“While recognizing the First Amendment rights of employees in their personal capacity, faculty must comply with these laws in the instruction of students, within the course and scope of their employment,” Mitchell wrote in a memo to the faculty on Friday.
The Texas Tech University System includes five institutions that had 69,502 enrolled students in 2024. The system inludes Texas Tech University, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University.
Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell restricted the discussion of transgender and nonbinary identities during classroom instruction across the system’s five universities, according to a letter he issued late Thursday. https://t.co/yl2lfkjgPR
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 27, 2025
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