Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/politics/texas-tech-gender.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pE8.-l3A.gurHqaxkwTtn&smid=url-share


The university system said faculty must comply with President Trump’s order recognizing only two genders, possibly a first for a major public institution of higher education.


The Texas Tech University system, one of the largest in the state, took steps to restrict academic discussions of gender, directing faculty in a letter circulated on Friday that they “must comply” with an executive order from President Trump recognizing only male and female genders.

The move, apparently a first among large institutions of higher education, raised alarm among professors and advocates of academic freedom across Texas. It signaled that an effort to restrict teaching about transgender people and other gender topics in K-12 classrooms — explicitly prohibited by Texas law — was expanding to colleges and universities, where no such ban exists.



“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.”

The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues.

Brian Evans, the president of the Texas conference of the American Association of University Professors, said that restrictions on discussions of gender would not only chill speech among professors but also impair classroom conversations with students.