University of Houston students brace for LGBTQ Resource Center closure in response to Texas' DEI ban

[LetMyPeopleVote]

My youngest child is LGBTQ and she loved the LGBTQ Resource Center. I am pissed at Greg and Dan Patrick for this stunt.

Link to tweet

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/17/university-houston-lgbtq-center-dei-ban/

Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center, hasn’t slept well ever since she heard that the center will be disbanded in accordance with Senate Bill 17, a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions......

SB 17, which takes effect on Jan. 1, will require that all state-funded colleges and universities close their DEI offices. It also bans any mandatory diversity training......

Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center, hasn’t slept well ever since she heard that the center will be disbanded in accordance with Senate Bill 17, a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions.

Although she knew the closure was coming after the bill passed in April in the Texas Senate, she still found herself emotionally ill-prepared to grapple with the reality: an end of an era for a place that served as a beacon of acceptance, safety and support for thousands of queer “Coogs,” as UH students often call themselves.

“There were a lot of special moments held in that space,” said Gonzales while crying during a phone interview this week.

SB 17, which takes effect on Jan. 1, will require that all state-funded colleges and universities close their DEI offices. It also bans any mandatory diversity training.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. This is what it's like now for LGBTQ+ students at @UHouston .

Link to tweet

[RKP5637]

3. The consistent goal of the GOP is to be injurious to as many people

as possible. The US has a crippling disease, the GOP.

[yankee87]

2. So Sorry

I can't believe these red states would intentionally hurt their own citizens to appeal to the bigots. We must keep voting these a-holes out of office and take our country forward.

[RKP5637]

4. K&R!!! n/t

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Rice University students open space to University of Houston LGBTQ population after anti-DEI law

Rice University is stepping up to provide resources to LGTBQ+ students in Houston

Link to tweet

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/rice-lgbtq-uh-anti-dei-law-18338437.php

Rice University’s LGBTQ student organization will open its campus space to University of Houston students affected by the closure of their school’s LGBTQ Resource Center.

The University of Houston's Center for Diversity and Inclusion and LGBTQ Resource Center will be disbanded after Thursday in favor of a new Center for Student Advocacy and Community as a space to serve all students. Public universities in Texas are in the process of dismantling their diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, offices because Senate Bill 17 bans DEI offices and diversity-related trainings and programs in higher education.

Rice’s status as a private institution protects it from the new state law.

“These offices and resource centers are extremely important for queer college students, as they provide a safe space to build community and stand in solidarity with other LGBTQ+ students,” Rice PRIDE students said on an Instagram post. “With Rice University being a private institution and thus not as affected by this legislation, we have the unique opportunity to share our university-sponsored resources with others during these troubling times.”

Rice PRIDE, the university’s LGBTQ student organization, is extending “honorary membership” to students from the University of Houston and other public universities that will no longer have designated offices to serve the LGBTQ population. After applying for membership, those students can now attend Rice PRIDE events or take any resources from Rice’s Queer Resource Center, a meeting space staffed by student volunteers in the Rice Memorial Center.