At Texas Tech, even the Vikings are too queer to teach, thanks to new restrictions on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.
Texas
Texas through a feminist lens: stories of resistance, resilience and reproductive justice in the Lone Star State.
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.
‘Where Are We?’: Days Before the Midterms, a Question None of Us Can Afford to Ignore
The rights many of us assumed were settled are being rolled back. Institutions we assumed were permanent are being tested. A democracy is only as strong as the people who show up for it. This year showing up has never mattered more.
There are many nonpartisan principles and values foundational to voting for a more just future … and one of them is the principle of equal rights for all.
The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed in 1923 and passed Congress in 1972. When Virginia ratified it in 2020, decades after Congress’ deadline, it became the 38th state to do so. Yet it has still not been certified and its legal status remains unresolved.
Most people don’t realize the Constitution still does not explicitly guarantee equal rights regardless of sex. We do have important protections against sex discrimination. Title IX opened classrooms and playing fields to generations of girls. The Equal Pay Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act made it illegal to pay women less for the same work or push them out of their jobs for being pregnant. But these are laws, not constitutional rights. What one Congress passes, another can weaken or repeal. Their strength depends on whoever holds the majority.
The Equal Rights Amendment would change that. It would place equality between women and men in the Constitution itself, pushing courts to treat sex discrimination with the same seriousness as other fundamental violations of our rights. Our progress would be far harder to roll back. Rights that can be repealed are not yet secure. When the rights of half the population can be rolled back, no one’s rights are secure.
Artist and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain’s latest work—Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring, a 65-inch sculpture of reclaimed cedar with 50,000 years of history hand-burned into its rings—traces the long fight for women’s equality and reminds us that the next chapter of feminist history is ours to write. (The tree ring is on display in downtown Austin, Texas, until Nov. 17; then it heads to New Mexico.)
Who Gets to Warn Women About Crisis Pregnancy Centers? Texas AG Ken Paxton Takes Yelp to Court.
Search Yelp for “pregnancy care” and you may encounter a crisis pregnancy center (CPC)—an organization that may advertise as a full-service clinic but does not provide abortions or referrals to abortion providers. Yelp labels these listings accordingly.
Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is weaponizing its consumer protection law to sue the company over an earlier, since-withdrawn nationwide notice that said crisis pregnancy centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.”
This under-the-radar case will test how far a state may reach when a national platform posts information that disagrees with state officials.
War on Women Report: ICE Lost Count of Detained Women’s Miscarriages; Sexual Assault Still Rampant on College Campuses; Post-Dobbs Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths on the Rise
MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide: the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.”
We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
Since our last report:
—On Wednesday, Sept. 2, Gloria Steinem, feminist, social activist and cofounder of Ms., died in her New York City home. She was 92.
—The family of Tierra Walker, who died in 2024 after she was refused a medically necessary abortion under Texas’ abortion ban, is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and several of Walker’s doctors and nurses in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.
—House Republicans have formally censured Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) for his documented inappropriate conduct toward women staffers, including excessive unwanted attention and gifts ranging from flowers and purses to personalized handguns.
—Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, spent a decade as part of a cult that trafficked and sexually exploited children and young women, former members allege.
—Almost 200 women have died in the U.S. due to an ectopic pregnancy between 2020 and 2025.
—“Jane Doe,” a former Cornell University student, has filed a lawsuit alleging she was coerced into taking incapacitating drugs, then gang-raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers over a period of several hours at their fraternity house in October 2024. The plaintiff is suing Cornell University, several fraternity and sorority organizations and the seven Chi Phi members: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar.
—A jury in Lima, Ohio, has indicted a 22-year-old woman for “abuse of a corpse” after she was arrested in February when she suffered a miscarriage and placed the fetal remains in the trash.
—The same month the details of the Cornell case emerged, a student at Louisiana State University is seeking criminal charges against a student football player for allegedly sexually assaulting her in October 2025. A Title IX investigation at the university level has found that the student-athlete is “responsible” for “sexual assault” and “forcible rape.” However, an appeals judge reduced his punishment from suspension to probation.
… and more.
After Her Near-Fatal Pregnancy Crisis, Amanda Zurawski Is Finally a Mom
In 2022, Amanda Zurawski became a national figure after she nearly died from pregnancy complications in Texas. Zurawski had conceived that pregnancy through intrauterine insemination (IUI), but when her water broke at 18 weeks, doctors delayed abortion care until she developed life-threatening sepsis. The infection left severe scarring in her reproductive organs, leading her and her husband, Josh, to pursue IVF and a surrogate, who gave birth to their son, August, on Sept. 13.
“August Mikel James Zurawski was born on Sep. 13, and he is happy and healthy. We are the happiest. … For the present, we hope to stay in Texas and fight. But now we have someone else to think about.”
What If the Virgin Mary Had Said No? Hilarious, Heartbreaking Off-Broadway Play ‘The Body of Mary’ Reimagines an Old Story
Through three Marys across centuries, Katie Cappiello’s play uses sharp humor and heartbreak to ask who gets to decide what happens to a woman’s body.
The Body of Mary runs Sept. 8-Oct. 8 at The Gym at Judson in Greenwich Village, New York City.
‘America Is Better With Friends’: What We Lose When the U.S. Turns Away From the World
As the Trump administration cuts foreign aid and pulls back from international commitments, what happens to the people and countries that have counted on the United States? And what do Americans stand to lose? A packed room for a panel on the first day of the Texas Tribune Festival with a daunting question: “Who Fills the Void?” suggested many people are trying to make sense of the same thing.
The all-women panel consisted of Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, a former diplomat and managing director at the George W. Bush Institute; Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, a fellow at the institute who has worked on democracy and human rights; and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee organization Global Refuge; moderated by Carine Hajjar of The Washington Post.
The three panelists had different answers to who fills the void: Competitors can gain influence when the U.S. gives up its place at the table. Allies may retreat, too. But in humanitarian work, no one may step in at all, meaning the people who need help are left waiting.
Bibbins Sedaca made the case for U.S. engagement abroad, in terms of both principle and self-interest: American “interests and values are integrated.” Democratically governed countries tend to be more stable and prosperous partners. Preventing disease and persecution abroad matters to the people living through those crises; it also helps make Americans safer.
Bibbins Sedaca acknowledged the economic pain many Americans feel and the need to scrutinize how aid is spent. But foreign assistance has typically accounted for just 1 percent of federal spending, and less than that in recent years. She rejected the idea that meeting needs at home requires the U.S. to disengage from the rest of the world.
This work also has a bipartisan history. Kennedy Trudeau pointed to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, launched by George W. Bush. The program has saved more than 26 million lives, according to the State Department. Kennedy Trudeau described its effects beyond the number: children in school, adults able to work and communities able to plan for a future. Countries facing an AIDS crisis also learned that the United States would stand with them.
Vignarajah described refugee resettlement as another commitment once supported by presidents of both parties. It was understood, she said, as both “the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.”
A Historic U.N. Choice, a Surge of Black Women Candidates and the Fight for Representation
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—A woman may finally become the new U.S. secretary general.
—Secretary General António Guterres’ powerful and motivating remarks: “At the current pace, it will take us 171 years to reach gender equality. I don’t think any one of us wants to wait that long.”
—the remarkable rise of Black women candidates in Georgia
—No group of donors has had quite the impact on electing more women than EMILYs List, whose “early money is like yeast” philosophy has contributed to women being poised to become the majority of Democratic lawmakers in state legislatures this year.
… and more.
‘Survivors Have Answered Enough’: The Epstein Reading Room Takes Survivors’ Fight on the Road
Attorney General Todd Blanche came to Dallas last week to deliver a “law and order” message at Trump’s midterm rally, where he praised the president and promised accountability for people who break the law. His central line was: “To evil men and women in this country, know this: President Trump will hold you accountable.”
A few miles away, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and their family were asking why that commitment to accountability had not extended to them.
They gathered inside the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, surrounded by 3,437 bound volumes containing nearly 3.5 million pages released by the Justice Department. The books weigh about 17,000 pounds and stretch across hundreds of feet of shelving, turning a sprawling digital archive into something visitors can see, walk through and begin to comprehend.
The scale of the files is staggering, but survivors said releasing millions of pages is not the same as delivering justice. They are still waiting for the Justice Department to release the remaining records, protect their identities and investigate viable leads involving alleged co-conspirators and enablers.
“Justice that stops when it reaches power is not justice,” survivor Sharlene Rochard said.
The thousands of bound volumes make that unfinished work impossible to ignore.
After completing its Dallas run, the Trump-Epstein Reading Room is back on the road.