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One student said they had begun being bumped around campus.
Students at schools once considered havens for LGBTQ+ students have become hostile environments under Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Transgender and nonbinary students in Texas say they have seen increased intolerance and harassment as the state cracks down on instruction about gender.
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Several spoke to the Texas Tribune about seeing a new level of personal mistreatment from individuals who openly reject their gender identities, all while support programs see cuts.
“I know I could be a lot better off if I lived somewhere I wasn’t considered a monster,” a Texas Tech student identified as Beth told the news outlet.
That’s a shift as Texas Tech over the last decade served as a refuge for LGBTQ+ students. A Gay-Straight Alliance a decade ago rallied around the queer community following the theft of rainbow flags on campus. But signs of that period of acceptance appear to be eroding.
The place that once hosted Lubbock Pride now goes unused, 10 years after the organization hosted the first Texas Tech Pride Week. In 2018, the school hosted the first Big 12 LGBTQIA Allies Summit, but the last such event was promoted in 2023, more than two years ago.
The Tribune didn’t just report a change in atmosphere at Texas Tech. Liz Graff, a nonbinary and transgender student at the University of Texas at Austin, said they were regularly bumped by other students on campus, and that other students would no longer do something as small as opening a door to a classroom. “I’m looking around, like, ‘What’s going on?” Graff said.
Other students, some of whose names were not reported, said the on-campus environment at Texas campuses had become “increasingly more hostile” over the last two years.
That’s a period that coincides with a rapid uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Texas, something that prompted Campus Pride in 2023 to stop recommending LGBTQ+ students attend colleges or universities in the state.
That move came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott forced schools to close LGBTQ+ resource centers on all campuses.
A crusade against LGBTQ+ topics has only increased since. A Texas A&M professor was fired last month for discussing gender identity in class. That followed administrators at the school being removed over the controversy.
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