University cancels class because professor won't say when LGBTQ+ issues would be discussedhttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/university-cancels-class-because-professor-wont-say-when-lgbtq-issues-would-be-discussed/ 🔗Alex Bollinger (20 Jan 2026)
Texas A&M University forced a professor to cancel a graduate-level ethics class after it had already started meeting, citing new rules for discussing race and gender issues in class last Wednesday.
Bush School of Government and Public Service Dean John Sherman said in an email to the school that Professor Leonard Bright did not provide information about the curricum of "Ethics in Public Policy" despite being asked, which meant that administrators couldn't see if the class would violate rules at the university that ban most discussions of topics related to LGBTQ+ people, race, and "gender ideology."
"We were not able to identify the specific information we needed to submit an exemption request and thus must cancel the course," Sherman wrote.
"I told them it was going to come up every day," Prof. Bright told The Texas Tribune. "During discussions, book reviews, case studies, throughout the course. There is no one day. That's how this class works."
Bright said that he told Sherman that "issues of race, gender, and sexuality are not peripheral but integral" to the class.
"I tried to underline that throughout the course — in every reading and every case study they have, in current events, in book reviews — [race and gender] will be central to this class. I guess [Sherman] didn't like that," he told Inside Higher Ed. "It appears to me that he wanted me to say, 'I'm just discussing it here,' so they can limit or censor this and say that they're only approving me to discuss it on this day or that day. I thought that that was inappropriate. I could not teach that class under that kind of condition."
