Friends,
I write today with a heavy heart regarding troubling news from my alma mater, Angelo State University (ASU). According to recent reporting by the Concho Observer (Staff Report, September 19, 2025, updated September 21, 2025), ASU leadership has announced new policies that will effectively erase the visibility of transgender students, faculty, and staff from campus life.
The directives reportedly include banning classroom discussions on transgender topics, prohibiting the use of chosen names and pronouns, and requiring the removal of safe-space stickers, LGBTQ+ flags, and pronouns in email signatures. Even more concerning, faculty have been warned that if they acknowledge the existence of more than two genders, they risk immediate termination.
As an alumna of Angelo State, I find this profoundly disturbing. A university should be a place of inquiry, openness, and critical engagement with the world—not an institution that silences scholarship, denies students’ lived realities, and criminalizes care. Policies such as these not only undermine academic freedom, but they also place LGBTQ+ students and faculty in direct harm, stripping them of dignity and safety.
Angelo State’s stated defense—that it is “a public institute of higher education” obliged to comply with federal and state directives—should not obscure the deeper truth: universities have a moral obligation to stand up for their students, to nurture diversity, and to model respect and inclusion.
I worry for the faculty who must navigate these unjust mandates, for the students whose identities are being denied, and for the long-term reputation of a campus that once prided itself on fostering opportunity and belonging. My hope is that ASU’s community, alumni, and allies across Texas will continue to voice concern and stand in solidarity with those most directly affected.
This regulating of youth bodies and identities is so incredibly dystopian. Higher education should expand possibilities, not restrict them. The policies being imposed at ASU betray that mission.
-Angela Valenzuela
ASU to Put New Transgender Policies in Place
Transgender discussions in class, and transgender language in course material will be hounded off college campuses in Texas, following orders from Pres. Donald Trump, and Gov. Greg Abbott, according to news reports, and information from a meeting with the leadership of Angelo State University.
The Concho Observer was furnished with the following information regarding new Transgender policies at the school.
According to our understanding of new policy:
- There is to be no discussion of transgender topics or any topics that suggest there are more than two genders as determined by one’s biological sex at birth.
- Information in syllibi about transgender topics must be removed.
- Instructors must refer to students by their given names and not their preferred names.
- Safe-space stickers, LGBTQ flags, etc. are not allowed and must be removed.
- All employees are to remove pronouns from email signatures.
- The university will not back up or defend faculty who teach these topics or discuss them in class.
According to a statement from ASU Director of Communications and Marketing Brittney Miller “Angelo State University is a public institute of higher education and is therefore subject to both state and federal law, executive orders and directives from the President of the United States, and executive orders and directives from the Governor of Texas. As such, Angelo State fully complies with the letter of the law.”
Update September 21, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.
The Concho Observer has confirmed that ASU will be holding mandatory meetings for all faculty and staff starting tomorrow Monday September 22, 2025. There are at least three meetings scheduled in various rooms on campus and all employees are required to attend one of them. Apparently legal staff will be present at the meetings to explain the new policies. According to our sources faculty have been told that if they make any statement implying that there are more than two sexes or genders (male and female) they will be fired.
No comments:
Post a Comment