(Texas Scorecard) – After attending a “transgender conference” at the University of Texas at Austin, State Rep. Brian Harrison is demanding an end to the school’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department.
Harrison (R-Midlothian) is calling for the university to be defunded unless it terminates the department, along with its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
“The Texas government has failed Texans, by weaponizing their tax collars against them, their values, and their children, and I won’t stand for it, especially in light of what I recently discovered on my undercover visit to the University of Texas campus yesterday as they were hosting a transgender conference,” Harrison stated.
He warned that if the programs are not immediately dismantled, he will attempt to strip UT Austin of taxpayer funding in the upcoming state budget.
On Tuesday, Harrison shared photos captured at the 32nd Annual Emerging Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Conference.
One featured a banner promoting an art exhibit called “TRANSCENDENCE: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy.” The banner shows two black men standing in front of a cross.
The event agenda for day one of the conference included a lecture titled “Keeping Time: Queer-Crip Temporal Attunement Through Tarot.”
Pamphlets and flyers throughout the library advertised “Resources for Trans Folks,” which primarily focused on the use of cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries used to appear like the opposite sex.
One flyer directed students to UT’s University Health Services for medical transition procedures and to the UT School of Law’s Gender Affirmation Project for legal name and gender changes.
The flyer was created by The Queer and Trans Student Alliance, which is an agency of the UT student government.
A flyer made by the group showed how to use different pronouns, including “they/them/theirs” and “ze or zie.”
Another flyer from the Gender and Sexuality Center instructed students on pronoun courtesy. “Don’t challenge what pronouns folks use or ask them why they use them,” it read.
A “Non-Medical Transition Resource Guide” detailed ways students could appear as the opposite sex. It provided information on where to find compression chest binders and methods for concealing or modifying the appearance of genitalia, such as “tucking” and “packing” devices.
A faculty development program lecture called “Is God a Sub or a Dom?” was also advertised and took place in early March.
“Using the interrelationships between Jamāl-o-Jalāl attributes in Islamic theology to reflect upon themes of pain-and-pleasure in kink/BDSM, Dr. Haq asks the question: is God a sub or a dom?” read the flyer.
Transgender flags decorated the library and the gender studies section held titles like “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” and “The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights.”
Several informational flyers sponsored by the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality department advertised that students can use a major, minor, or certificate from the department to become a “government reform activist.”
Harrison has introduced House Bill 2339 this session, which would prohibit courses relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer studies.
The proposal would also ban diversity, equity, and inclusion courses that promote “differential treatment of individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity.”
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare recently sent a letter to the UT System Board of Regents imploring it to ban drag shows on campuses and comply with President Trump’s executive order stating that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
The Board of Regents has since banned drag shows across all UT campuses.
The University of Texas at Austin did not respond to a request for comment on Harrison’s demands.