Angelo State University bans classroom discussions of transgender identities, stirring criticism and confusion

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Editor's note: Restrictions on classroom instruction about transgender and nonbinary identities were rolled out across the Texas Tech University System after this story was initially published. Read the latest here.

Angelo State University officials have told professors not to discuss transgender and nonbinary identities in their courses, according to interviews with faculty members and several emails a professor provided to The Texas Tribune. This move makes it the first known public Texas university to largely restrict classroom acknowledgement of such gender identities, heightening concerns about threats to academic freedom across the state.

Brittney Miller, spokesperson for the San Angelo school that is part of the Texas Tech University System, declined to discuss details of the directives or provide a written policy. The new restrictions originated in a Friday meeting with President Ronnie D. Hawkins and academic leaders and were then communicated down to professors via emails or in-person meetings, according to Linda Kornasky, an English professor who started the university’s gender studies minor, and multiple faculty members who would only speak to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity because they fear termination for speaking with the media. A written policy doesn’t exist, these professors said.

Without confirming or denying the guidance, Miller only said in a statement that the university is following 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, a state law that requires a strict binary definition of gender for the collection of vital statistics, but doesn’t mention academic discussions.

"As such, Angelo State University fully complies with the letter of the law,” Miller said.

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Academic freedom and civil rights groups have pushed back against the justification for ASU’s restrictions, saying the federal executive order and the governor’s directive don’t constitute law while HB 229 does not explicitly mention higher education. They called the university’s directives overreach that undermines academic freedom and erases trans campus members.

“It’s such a blatant violation of First Amendment and academic freedom rights,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors. “There was no process. This just happened out of nowhere.”

ASU has more than 12,000 students and over 400 faculty members. Its move to restrict discussion of trans identities came on the heels of a controversy at Texas A&M, in which the university fired a professor amid conservative backlash — including from top Texas Republicans — over a viral video depicting a student’s objection to a gender identity discussion in a children’s literature class. A&M’s president also resigned over a week later after he was criticized for his initial handling of the incident.

Separate statements from Miller and the Texas Tech University System on Tuesday suggested that the restrictions were limited to ASU and not other schools in the system. The new directives were first reported by The Concho Observer. But Texas Tech Chancellor Tedd Mitchell late Thursday restricted classroom discussions of transgender and nonbinary identities at the system’s five universities

Jason Pierce, chair of ASU’s history department, said in emails to professors he oversees that discussing homosexuality or bisexuality is acceptable, but discussing transgender information is “forbidden.” He also said any mention of transgender identity must be taken out of course descriptions and textbooks chapters on transgender identity must be omitted. Pierce did not provide the Tribune with a copy of the emails, but confirmed their existence.

“We were instructed to get the word out about the new policies as quickly as possible out of fear of a similar incident to what happened at Texas A&M occurring here, which I did as emails to my faculty (in part because some teach remotely and not on campus),” Pierce said in an emailed statement to the Tribune.

But Texas A&M does not have such strict restrictions on classroom discussions of transgender identities. The university instead alleged in its termination notice that the professor was "instructed on multiple occasions to change the course content to align with the course description ... and chose not to follow the directive."

Because ASU’s new rules appear to remain unwritten, faculty members who spoke to the Tribune and campus emails suggest broad confusion over the past few days.

“Why us? 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?” Kornasky said. “We weren't informed about anything [leading up to the rule change].”

Unwritten rules cause confusion

Since Friday, ASU faculty members have played a game of telephone to understand the new set of rules, they said.

Hawkins introduced the changes in a Friday meeting with university leaders, deans and department chairs, according to two ASU employees with knowledge of the discussion and an email shared with the Tribune. Hawkins however, has yet to send any campus-wide communication about the restrictions, instead leaving that task to deans and department chairs.

“The university will not back up or defend faculty who teach these topics or discuss them in class,” Pierce said in a Friday email to his department faculty, prompting fear that professors could lose their jobs.

Hawkins and Provost Donald Topliff didn’t respond to requests for comment. According to an email viewed by the Tribune, after a Friday meeting, Hawkins also emailed attendees links to Trump’s executive order, Abbott’s directive and HB 229 that Miller later referenced in her statement.

Texas lawmakers in recent years have repeatedly filed scores of bills aimed at restricting trans peoples' access, like the bathrooms they can use, the sports teams they can play on and the medical treatment they can receive as children. Trump’s executive order and Abbott’s directive came after a 2024 election season in which political strategists and experts say anti-trans ads and campaign messages mobilized the Republican base, helping them secure major victories in Texas and beyond. HB 229’s author, state Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, argued during the most recent legislative session that her measure was needed to protect women’s sports teams or women’s privacy in places like bathrooms.

The College of Arts and Humanities — which houses the gender studies minor — also held a meeting for its faculty members on Monday, according to multiple professors who attended and a recording of the meeting provided to the Tribune. Sergio Ruiz, the college’s dean who led the meeting, did not respond to requests for comment.

“In the classroom setting, you need to conform to what the law states and the law states in Texas that we can only address men and biological men as men and biological women as women,” Ruiz said in the recording. “No other genders are going to be acceptable to teach in the classroom setting. Doesn't matter what we believe or disbelieve, whether you agree or disagree. I am just telling you what the law is.”

Some who attended the meeting called for a written policy and guidance, according to the recording.

“They're asking us to do it now, and they're not giving us any tools to do and then it's going to be on us, because, like you said, we're the ones who's going to be fired,” one person said.

Professors are concerned the new limits will affect their ability to teach and discuss a wide range of subjects. Some questioned whether they can discuss the cross-dressing that occurred during Shakespearean plays in the past when women couldn’t act, or even studies that critique transgender identity.

“Since we were told to err on the side of caution, there is clearly a kind of stifling of speech,” Kornasky, the English professor, said. “A kind of veiled threat that, if we at all address actual current events, or current scholarship, that somehow we're doing something illegal.”

Pierce initially told department faculty that professors would no longer be able to use transgender or nonbinary students’ preferred pronouns or names. But on Tuesday, he indicated there had been another meeting in which there were “a few points of clarification.” He said students’ preferred names could be used and that professors could have Pride flags in their offices or on their vehicles.

“LGB information and content is acceptable,” he said in a Tuesday email to faculty members. “It is only transgender that is forbidden.”

Transgender people consider themselves the gender opposite of the sex assigned to them at birth. Gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation, which refers to the gender or genders someone is emotionally or sexually attracted to.

Some professors are worried that exclusion will harm trans students.

“We have students who have grown up at a time when the major medical associations in our country … and many other groups have come out to support the medical treatment of transgender identity,” Kornasky said. “It's unfair to them, right? I have students who are affected, and it’s very traumatic for them.”

Hayden Cohen, state policy director for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, said the rules “erase” the identity of trans students in classrooms and could create a more hostile environment for them on campus.

“Your trans identity plays into how you want to be treated, how you wish you were treated, and now how the school’s going to end up treating you based off of that,” said Cohen, who is also a nonbinary college student based in Houston.

The Archer College of Health and Human Services — which houses the psychology, social work and other health-related departments — had its own meeting on Tuesday, prompting questions about how to work with and provide care for transgender individuals, according to a professor and email shared with the Tribune. Katie Lyman, the college’s dean, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, some faculty members said they are still hoping for a written policy.

“We’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop and get something official from someone, maybe from higher up, that’s a little clearer on the policy,” one professor told the Tribune.

Academic freedom under attack, advocates say

ASU’s operating policy says the school is “strongly committed” to academic freedom. But academic freedom and civil rights groups, such as the ACLU Texas and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, call ASU’s move an attack on that principle.

Advocates also said the federal executive order and governor’s letter don’t create any new laws that ban the teaching of transgender identity. At the same time, they said HB 229 makes no mentions about teaching in higher education.

“It’s completely a misuse of the law,” said Johnathan Gooch, communications director for Equality Texas, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Brian Harrison, who used social media posts to fan backlash about the Texas A&M gender identity lesson, suggested that the controversy influenced ASU’s decision. The Midlothian Republican, who unsuccessfully authored a bill to ban universities from offering LGBTQ studies earlier this year, also recently said that there are currently no Texas laws that ban teaching about gender in universities.

“This is NOT a result of any state law,” Harrison wrote in a Monday post on X. “This is a direct result of my X feed, success getting the @TAMU President removed, and grassroots patriots demanding action!”

Harrison’s office declined to comment.

Free speech organization FIRE asked Hawkins to abandon the new restrictions.

“FIRE hopes this is a misunderstanding,” FIRE program counsel Ross Marchand said in a Tuesday statement. “But if ASU is truly moving forward with this restrictive policy, it must reverse course immediately.”

Multiple people who attended Monday’s meeting with the College of Arts and Humanities expressed confusion about why ASU is rolling out these new rules, and how far the university will go, according to the audio recording of the meeting The Tribune obtained. One faculty member said such limits on classroom topics could harm the academic and professional development of students.

"Where is it all going to end?” they said in the recording. “Your discipline is an international discipline, and you are knee-capping not only academics, but also our students, our graduate students, who need to be aware of the conversations in your field.”

Disclosure: ACLU Texas, Equality Texas and Texas Tech University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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