Stop the Attacks on Gender and LGBTQ+ Scholarship

In 1633, the Roman Inquisition forced Galileo Galilei to “abjure, curse, and detest” the doctrine of heliocentrism. Galileo knew that the earth revolved around the sun, but he said otherwise to save his life. Yet the astronomer had the last laugh. “Eppur si muove,” he reportedly said after his abjuration. The earth continued to revolve around the sun in spite of the Inquisition’s reactionary efforts.

Today, heliocentrism is universally accepted, but a similar effort is underway to roll back the clock on intellectual progress. Faculty in Texas are being pressured to reject decades of research and scholarship which have established that gender and sexuality are a product of societal conditioning as well as of biology. In recent weeks, Texas State University has removed a course on LGBTQ+ Communication from its catalogue; The Texas Tech system has limited discussions of gender identity in its classrooms; and Texas A&M has fired a professor for addressing this theme in her courses.

Now, the Texas State University System has ordered an audit of “academic courses, programs, and syllabi.”  TSUS Vice Chancellor for Academic and Health Affairs stated as a justification for this unusual move “recent inquiries about course offerings.” This cryptic explanation appears to refer to the kind of pressure from right-wing extremists that led to the firing at Texas A&M. The Vice Chancellor stated that one goal of this audit was to make sure all courses are “compliant with the law.” It is therefore worth emphasizing that there are no laws against the teaching of gender and sexuality. The President of the United States and the Governor of Texas have both issued statements on this topic. They are not kings, however, so their words do not hold the force of law. Neither the United States Congress nor the Texas State Legislature has outlawed the teaching of these topics.

This recently announced audit is ideological in nature and therefore a clear violation of academic freedom. Yet faculty members at Texas State University have little recourse. We no longer have an independent Faculty Senate. And the administration in San Marcos will not support professors against right-wing extremists or stand up to reactionary forces. The twenty-first-century Inquisition may well get its way and ban the teaching of gender and sexuality. As with Galileo, however, the world will continue to move forward.

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