At Texas Universities, Censorship Isn’t a Bug. It’s a Feature.

In recent months, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have drawn national headlines for banning drag shows, removing faculty members, and issuing gag orders on gender discussions. The office of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick posted on X that punishing in-class discussion of gender identity at A&M would protect “the values of the state.” That term is designed to sound wholesome but belies the truth: The so-called “values” being promoted by state policymakers and university regents—increasingly intertwined groups—are invisibility, illegitimacy, and danger for trans and nonbinary communities, alongside a crushing of free speech on college campuses.

At Texas A&M in College Station—my alma mater—Melissa McCoul, a senior lecturer in English, was teaching a summer course on children’s literature. During one class she showed an illustration of gender identity, expression, and sexuality as part of a discussion of a book she assigned that has a 12-year-old nonbinary protagonist. A student began recording the lecture on her phone and interrupted to claim that the material was “illegal,” citing President Trump’s Executive Order Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which states, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” as evidence.

But she was in fact wrong. It was not illegal because executive orders are not law. Congress, not the president, is responsible for writing and passing legislation. And there are no federal laws prohibiting instruction on race, gender, or sexuality. While Texas banned diversity, equity, and inclusion-related activities in higher education last year, no state laws prohibited such instruction at the time of the incident either. And yet a college student behaved as if such a law existed, Republicans in Texas behaved as if such a law existed, and eventually, Texas A&M leadership did as well. The conflict continues as other Texas universities are reviewing their own course offerings for fear of government reprisal.

Texas State Representative Brian Harrison, a Republican representing Midlothian, shared the lecture clips on X, calling on the president and Texas Governor Greg Abbott to investigate and end the “DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination.” Trump Department of Justice’s Harmeet Dhillon expressed concern on X and said the DOJ would investigate. A&M’s then-president, Mark Welsh, fired McCoul and removed two administrators from College of Arts and Sciences leadership positions. When political pressure did not subside, Welsh resigned. (Notably, Welsh, a retired Air Force four-star general, got the job when former Texas A&M President Katherine Banks resigned after journalism program director Kathleen McElroy was pushed out because conservatives in and outside of the university declared her too “woke.” McElroy, who had worked on diversity in newsrooms and for The New York Times, later received a $1 million settlement for the way the situation was handled.)

Two weeks later, in Lubbock, Texas Tech University ordered faculty to limit classroom discussion of transgender and nonbinary identities. This first-of-its-kind action is extremely vague—a purposeful tactic leading to broad self-censorship because it is unclear how to comply. Students and faculty on campus are already fearing how the university will enforce this and what the consequences might be. LGBTQ advocates have stated concerns for the effects this gag order will have on mental health for trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer students. Since the announcement from Texas Tech, the University of Texas, the University of North Texas, and Texas Woman’s University have all ordered reviews of courses.

“At Texas universities, censorship isn’t a bug—it’s a weapon against trans people.”

And in early October, the Trump Administration sent invitations to the University of Texas and eight other elite universities to sign a pledge to uphold the president’s values in exchange for preferential federal funding treatment. The demands range from tuition freezes to caps on international student admittance and include that the institution agree to a “strict definition of gender,” excluding trans women from locker rooms and sports. The University of Texas was the first to respond, with the chair of the Board of Regents saying the institution is “honored” and that they “enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately.”

These are more than political crackdowns on speech. These actions reflect a coordinated effort where the erasure of trans people is the point. Every move narrows the spaces where trans people can exist visibly and safely. At Texas universities, censorship isn’t a bug—it’s a weapon against trans people. And just as Texas has inspired other states to follow suit after passing a law in 2021 that provides cash bounties to private citizens who report anyone aiding a person seeking an abortion, we can expect moves like this on campuses elsewhere as well.

The strength of higher education is its capacity to host contested, sometimes uncomfortable conversations—not silence them. In the “Introduction to Sociology” class I took at A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences (called “the College of Liberal Arts” while I was there), I learned about systemic racism and mass incarceration. In a “Psychology of Women” class, I learned about feminism and the patriarchy. These were not classes without debate, which was helpful: As students, we learned how to form coherent arguments, how to disagree with someone but understand where they were coming from, and what we really thought about some critical issues.

These events at Texas universities are more than anecdotes. They are warning signs of an academic environment under pressure from political forces that seek to limit open inquiry, especially around gender, in pursuit of a bigoted agenda. Suppressing speech about gender does not eliminate “gender ideology”—it is gender ideology, one that seeks to entrench a singular, restrictive vision of gender while denying the very real plurality of human experience.

The long-term effects of the decisions being made in Texas right now are devastating. An entire generation of students graduating college without seeing trans people represented in coursework, culture, or speech will normalize erasure as policy, the ignorance that comes with it, and the self-appointed role of government in demonizing underrepresented groups.

Follow The Thread! Subscribe to The Thread monthly newsletter to get the latest in policy, equity, and culture in your inbox.