Texas University System Bans Talking About Trans & Nonbinary Identities

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” one professor told the New York Times.

By Danielle Han | September 29, 2025 | 5:00pm

Photo: Getty Images Politics

Texas University System Bans Talking About Trans & Nonbinary Identities

Texas has long lambasted its LGBTQ+ communities with cruel directives, anti-gay and anti-trans bills, and bans on trans-affirming care. So in January, when President Trump signed several executive orders targeting trans people, Texas was quick to build on its already aggressive anti-trans agenda. Governor Abbott issued a directive commanding state officials to “reject woke gender ideologies,” and House Bill 229 used regressive definitions to define “two sexes.”

On Thursday, Texas Tech University System cited all three in a letter to all five of its universities to ban any talk of trans and nonbinary identities.

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“Current state and federal law recognize only two human sexes: male and female, as outlined in House Bill 229, Governor’s Letter, and Executive Order,” Chancellor Ted Mitchell wrote. “I recognize that members of our community may hold differing personal views on these matters. Regardless, in your role as a state employee, compliance with the law is required, and I trust in your professionalism to carry out these responsibilities in a manner that reflects well on our universities.” Mitchell’s letter doesn’t specify what can and can’t actually be talked about; instead, it advises presidents to review faculty syllabi and curricula to make “timely adjustments where needed.”

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” one Texas Tech professor told the New York Times after the announcement. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.”

The Texas Tech system has 70,000 students, approximately 2000 of them trans or nonbinary.

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— Sean D. Johnson (@seanjohnson.bsky.social) 27 September 2025 at 12:17

Mitchell’s letter is the first of its kind—but earlier this month, an instructor and two administrators at Texas A&M were fired after a student filmed themselves arguing with the lecturer for saying a course broke the law for citing material that recognized more than two genders. And on the same day as Mitchell’s letter, faculty members at Angelo State University told the Tribune they were being told not to mention trans identity in their courses, through word of mouth, or during board meetings. The Concho Observer further explained that under new rules, instructors must call their students by their legally assigned names, employees have to remove their pronouns from their email signatures, and any safe-space stickers and pride flags are now banned from campus.

“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 Tribune in response to the bans at Angelo. “There was no process. This just happened out of nowhere.” According to the organization, several other public universities and community colleges are mulling similar rules.

In August, the Trump Administration told 46 states to remove “gender ideology” content from all its classrooms, threatening to withhold funding if instructors do not comply. The measure is currently being challenged by 16 Democrat-led states.

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