The University of North Texas has erased a webpage about its LGBTQ archival collection after a state lawmaker called for its removal, according to online records.
UNT’s library stores and archives one of the largest collections of LGBTQ history in North Texas. The archive, which aims to document the LGBTQ community in the South and Southwest, collects primary source materials, such as flyers, newspapers and photographs.
On social media Friday, state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, posted a screenshot of a UNT Libraries webpage advertising the collection and suggested that taxpayer money was being used to fund “transgender indoctrination” at the public university.
By Saturday, the webpage about the archival collection led to an error message.
In a post, Harrison took credit for the site’s removal. He also called on UNT to “end the program, not just a website.”
“It needs to be gone,” he said in an interview Tuesday, referring to the collection. “The Texas government has no business whatsoever using tax dollars to promote the transgender agenda.”
Representatives from UNT did not respond to a request for comment, including questions about why the webpage was removed and whether UNT still plans to house the collection.
The webpage’s removal marks the latest instance of Harrison’s social media crusade to eradicate LGBTQ topics at Texas universities.
Harrison’s post last year of a Texas A&M University professor discussing gender identity in her course led to the professor’s firing and the university president’s resignation. The incident brought increased scrutiny to state universities, spurring course content reviews at multiple universities, including UNT, and new restrictions on classroom content related to race and gender.
On Tuesday, Harrison said he had communicated with UNT “over their liberal indoctrination” before his posts last week. When he found the webpage, he was “incensed because I had assurances that this kind of stuff was going to stop, and the fact that it wasn’t upset me.”
Representatives from UNT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether such conversations occurred.
UNT has housed an LGBTQ archive collection in its libraries for more than a decade. Its first acquisition was a collection of historical material from Resource Center of Dallas, North Texas’ largest LGBTQIA+ organization, in 2012, according to the now-removed webpage. The library has also worked with other community organizations, such as The Dallas Way and The Dallas Voice, to create the collection.
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This article originally published at UNT removes webpage about LGBTQ library archives after North Texas lawmaker’s posts.