Texas A&M fired a professor for teaching about gender identity. Now, she's suinghttps://www.advocate.com/news/texas-am-melissa-mccoul-lawsuit 🔗Ryan Adamczeski (5 Feb 2026)
The Texas A&M professor who was fired for teaching about gender identity has filed a lawsuit against the university, accusing officials of violating her First Amendment rights.
Melissa McCoul went viral last summer when a student in her literature class objected to her correct statement that there are more than two genders, resulting in her being fired and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the English department being removed from their administrative positions.
Her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, claims that the school not only violated her academic freedom, but "failed to honor a single one of the due process protections" guaranteed to professors.
"Academic freedom is under attack," the suit reads. "Professor Melissa McCoul was terminated because of the content of her course; content that was consistent with her syllabus, the course description, and the approved purpose of the course. Texas A&M University ran roughshod over Dr. McCoul's due process rights in its haste to meet Texas Governor Greg Abbott's demand that the University fire her."
McCoul was fired after Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison posted a video of the incident, in which a student who was secretly recording disrupted her class by claiming the lesson was illegal under Donald Trump's executive order that recognizes only male and female sexes as assigned at birth. The student also claimed the lesson violated her religious and moral beliefs, leading to a heated exchange with another student. McCoul then asked the student to leave, as she was impeding others' ability to learn.
