Texas Tech University System has introduced a sweeping new policy targeting the teaching and study of LGBTQ+ topics across its campuses, prompting alarm from students and faculty over academic freedom, viewpoint discrimination and the future of gender-related study.
The move was ordered by Chancellor Brandon Creighton in a memo issued on 9 April, directing the system’s five universities to phase out academic programmes “centred on” sexual orientation and gender identity. Provosts were given until 15 June to identify the affected programmes, and campuses were instructed to freeze admissions and stop students from newly declaring majors in them, although students already enrolled will be allowed to finish.
Programmes most obviously at risk include women’s and gender studies offerings at Texas Tech, Midwestern State University and Angelo State University. The memo also says future graduate theses and dissertations may centre on gender identity and sexual orientation only as a temporary exception for students already in the pipeline.
The restrictions do not stop at degree programmes. In core and lower-level undergraduate courses, instructors are generally barred from assigning materials that are “centred on” or even “include” sexual orientation or gender identity, except in limited circumstances. The memo defines “centred on” as course content where those themes are the primary subject or framework, while “includes” refers to cases where they appear only as secondary context. If a standard textbook contains such material, faculty may keep it in the book, but they are told not to highlight it, test students on it or spend class time discussing it.
Creighton’s memo also directs faculty to recognise only “two human sexes” and says instruction must not present gender identity as a spectrum or more than two genders as fact. Some exceptions remain for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, including teaching on active public policy and legal disputes, historical subjects such as the AIDS epidemic, where these topics are inseparable from the subject matter, certain datasets, and some clinical or counselling contexts.
Students and faculty have strongly criticised the move. One Texas Tech junior told the Texas Tribune that the policy blocks “an honest education”, while long-serving English professor Jen Shelton called it a “betrayal”. Another faculty member said students had already begun questioning whether they should remain at the university, and at least one graduate student had reportedly dropped out under the pressure of earlier directives.
Civil rights concerns have also been raised. Antonio Ingram, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defence Fund, told the Tribune that the memo appears to target viewpoints about gender identity and sexual orientation for political reasons rather than academic ones, raising serious constitutional questions for a public university system.
Creighton has defended the policy by saying the Texas Tech system is focused on making sure academic programmes are rigorous, relevant and lead to valuable degrees. He has also framed the broader push as part of an effort to clean up what he sees as ideological “garbage” in university curricula and has linked it to his earlier role in advancing anti-DEI legislation in Texas higher education.
