Author: Deena Varner

Deena Varner is an assistant professor of practice in the English department at Texas Tech University. She has published widely on women, gender, sexuality and is the author of From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Privatizing Justice in the Neoliberal United States, which examines how legal and civic rights are eroded through administrative procedures. (She is writing in her capacity as a private individual and not on behalf of her employer.)

Texas Is Testing a Blueprint for Censoring Gender and Sexuality in Higher Education Nationwide

I teach at a major research university in Texas, where higher education has become a testing ground for state censorship. Our censorship regime is led by Brandon Creighton, a former Texas state senator appointed chancellor by the Board of Regents. As a senator, Creighton authored the state’s sweeping anti-DEI law and legislation that increases political oversight of public institutions. He also authored or supported some of the Texas legislature’s most restrictive anti-LGBTQIA+ measures.

Now, as chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, which serves more than 65,000 students, Creighton has made clear that he wants our institution to model a new future for higher education nationally: one in which politically appointed regents exert greater control over what professors teach, and the study of gender and sexuality is sharply restricted.

Faculty, students and staff are the proving ground for that model. But they’re also pushing back: The restrictions are now being challenged in federal court by faculty organizations that argue they violate constitutional protections for free speech and academic freedom.