Both the Young Americans Foundation (YAF) and Defending Education have filed lawsuits against public universities over policies they say compel adherence to aspects of radical gender ideology. The lawsuits target the University of Minnesota and the University of California, respectively, alleging that each institution imposes those requirements through their “anti-discrimination” policies.
In its lawsuit against the University of Minnesota, YAF contends that the university’s policy unlawfully restricts students from engaging in debate over aspects of transgender ideology.
In the filing, YAF alleges that the university’s student life policies “forbid students and guests from speaking on one side of the debate about gender identity and transgender issues, and also forbid them from using biological pronouns to refer to transgender-identifying people.”
YAF states on its website, “This means that a UMN student can be accused of discrimination for believing that there are only two genders; refusing to use incorrect pronouns; refusing to recognize transgenderism; and speaking out for their own privacy against members of the opposite sex using their bathrooms.”
In the Defending Education lawsuit against the University of California, the group claims the school’s “Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment (SVSH) Policy” determines that “[i]ntentionally calling someone their name used before [gender] transition, as opposed to their lived name, is called dead-naming, and may be a form of sexual harassment.”
Furthermore, students at the University of California are required to undergo “Sexual Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education (SHAPE) training which outlines [how] students must abide by this gender ideology.
“Speech codes like those in UC’s SVSH policy impose vague, overbroad, content- and often viewpoint-based restrictions on speech,” according to Defending Education.
“And, as the Supreme Court has routinely confirmed, they are unconstitutional.”
Both of these university systems have a record of obligating university members to adhere to some forms of transgender ideology.
In 2019, the University of Minnesota drew criticism when a new faculty policy required them to “use the names, gender identities and pronouns specified to them by university members, except as legally required.”
Faculty members who failed to use the specified pronouns could face penalties “up to firing or expulsion.”
Similarly, the University of California Riverside provided students with a “Trans Guide,” which directed them to identify students by their “accurate gender identity and lived or preferred name on university-issued documents.”
Taken together, the policies cited in both lawsuits illustrate the broader dispute over whether public universities may require students and faculty to affirm contested views on gender identity.
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