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Home – Texas Politics & News – Texas Tech Lawsuit Raises Bigger Question: Who Controls the Classroom?

Texas Tech Lawsuit Raises Bigger Question: Who Controls the Classroom?

A national professors’ union has sued the Texas Tech University system’s chancellor and Board of Regents over policies that restrict professors from teaching about LGBTQ identity, gender, and race.

The lawsuit, filed last week by the American Association of University of Professors–American Federation of Teachers and its Texas chapter, names the system’s chancellor, Brandon Creighton, and Texas Tech System Board of Regents as defendants. The union alleges Creighton issued two memorandums that violate professors’ First and 14th Amendment rights.

Creighton’s move as chancellor is not a new one. Before being appointed to his current position, he served as a Texas state representative and authored Senate Bill 17, which bans diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at Texas public universities. Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law in 2023, and it took effect January 2024.

The first memorandum, issued in December 2025, stated that the system would immediately remove course content that conflicts with the university’s standards. The memo specifically cited content promoting the ideas that one race or sex is inherently superior to another; that an individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive by virtue of race or sex; and that individuals bear responsibility or guilt for actions of others of the same race or sex.

The memo also stated that faculty should not teach or submit course content related to gender identity, citing Texas state law and federal policies that recognize only two sexes, male and female.

Creighton released a second memorandum in April 2026, stating that the system would phase out all sexual orientation and gender identity coursework. The memo also prohibited teaching that gender identity is a fluid spectrum, that there are more than two genders, or that gender can be decoupled........

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