Overview

• After internal clarifications, faculty may use students’ preferred names and display rainbow flags, but discussion or course content about transgender identities remains barred, according to emails obtained by Inside Higher Ed.
• The directives were delivered verbally and are not posted as formal policy, leaving employees with uneven guidance and unresolved questions about enforcement.
• Angelo State cites a Trump executive order, a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott, and Texas House Bill 229 to justify its approach, though HB 229 governs government data collection rather than classroom instruction.
• Legal scholars and even a key Republican lawmaker note there is no Texas statute that explicitly prohibits teaching or discussing LGBTQ topics at public universities.
• The moves follow a high-profile Texas A&M episode that led to a lecturer’s firing and the president’s resignation, heightening pressure that faculty groups and civil-liberties advocates say is chilling academic speech.