Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison is demanding that the University of Texas at Austin shut down its Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department after he snuck into a campus “transgender conference” and called it a “shock.”
“I am calling to completely DEFUND the University of Texas unless they immediately terminate their Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, their LGBTQ Studies, and DEI programs,” Harrison said in a statement Wednesday, a day after his self-described “undercover visit” to the conference.
The Republican lawmaker posted a lengthy thread on X, with pictures, of many of his discoveries on campus, stating: “What I found will shock you. The Texas Government is promoting a radical, liberal agenda … with your tax dollars.”
The post has been viewed nearly 4 million times within 24 hours.
🚨The Texas government hosted a transgender conference at @UTAustin today… so, naturally, I snuck in.
What I found will shock you.
The Texas Government is promoting a radical, liberal agenda… with your tax dollars.
Read🧵below.
Prepare to be furious.
— Brian Harrison (@brianeharrison) March 25, 2025
Harrison had attended the 32nd Annual Emerging Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Conference, Texas Scorecard reported, adding:
One featured a banner promoting an art exhibit called “TRANSCENDENCE: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy.” The banner shows two black men standing in front of a cross.
The event agenda for day one of the conference included a lecture titled “Keeping Time: Queer-Crip Temporal Attunement Through Tarot.”
Pamphlets and flyers throughout the library advertised “Resources for Trans Folks,” which primarily focused on the use of cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries used to appear like the opposite sex.
One flyer directed students to UT’s University Health Services for medical transition procedures and to the UT School of Law’s Gender Affirmation Project for legal name and gender changes.
The flyer was created by The Queer and Trans Student Alliance, which is an agency of the UT student government.
A flyer made by the group showed how to use different pronouns, including “they/them/theirs” and “ze or zie.”
Another flyer from the Gender and Sexuality Center instructed students on pronoun courtesy. “Don’t challenge what pronouns folks use or ask them why they use them,” it read.
The lawmaker also posted several other pictures from the conference and the campus, including rainbow flags, graphic books from the gender studies library section, and events about “trans convening.”
Harrison, in his statement, said that if “these programs are not immediately terminated, along with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, which I have already called to be ended, I will do everything I can to completely defund the University of Texas of all taxpayer funding in the budget that the Texas House will shortly consider.”
According to the university’s website, the daylong conference is sponsored by the Warfield Center, Sociology, American Studies, Theatre and Dance, Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project, and Microcosm Publishing.
As The College Fix previously reported, despite a Texas law that bans DEI offices at colleges and universities, campuses have been finding ways to work around the law.
MORE: More Texas colleges appear to dodge new law banning DEI offices
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Building poster at UT-Austin promoting ‘TRANSCENDENCE: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy’ / X screenshot from Rep. Brian Harrison
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