{"id":2544,"date":"2025-10-14T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2544\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:30:09","slug":"how-one-lawmaker-is-weaponizing-social-media-to-eradicate-lgbtq-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2544\/","title":{"rendered":"How one lawmaker is weaponizing social media to eradicate LGBTQ+ curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.\n<\/p>\n

A few days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a video was posted on social media of a Texas State University student mockingly re-enacting the conservative activist\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Harrison<\/a> saw the video and got to work.<\/p>\n

He pulled up the university\u2019s online course catalog and found a class called LGBTQ+ Communication Studies, where students were to learn about how \u201ccommunication sustains both discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and their resistance,\u201d according to the course description.<\/p>\n

Within the hour, Harrison shared the video of the student on his X account alongside the image of the offending course description.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespicable!\u201c the Midlothian Republican wrote in his post to his 86,000 followers. \u201cWORSE… I just found out that Texas State University is literally indoctrinating students in TRANSGENDER \u2019RESISTANCE\u2019 and TRANSGENDER \u2019JUSTICE!\u2019 Why are @GregAbbott_TX<\/a>\u2019s Regents at @txst<\/a> allowing this!!??\u201d<\/p>\n

After sparking the online outrage with his post, Harrison appeared on Steve Bannon\u2019s show later that day to fan the flames, railing against the San Marcos-based university for offering the course. Shortly after, Texas Scorecard, a conservative website followed by many state legislators, wrote about Harrison\u2019s efforts, naming the professor and further dissecting her syllabus.<\/p>\n

Texas State removed the course from its catalog the day after Harrison\u2019s post. It\u2019s unclear if the course is permanently removed. The university refused to explain its decision and the professor did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

This chain of events has become a standard playbook for the North Texas lawmaker, who is increasingly seeking to make an impact through his prolific social media posts over his work in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

For more than a year, Harrison has been on a crusade against Texas universities, scouring course catalogs and university websites for examples of \u201cgender ideology\u201d or LGBTQ+ curriculum, riling up his X followers about the use of taxpayer dollars to fund \u201cliberal indoctrination\u201d on campus, and calling out university leaders and members of his own party for allowing the coursework to stand.<\/p>\n

In the Capitol, Harrison is a loner. Republican officials publicly deride him and his lack of legislative success \u2014 he passed zero of his own bills this year \u2014 or they disregard him entirely. But last month, Harrison notched a major victory for himself, drawing attention to a dispute that led to the ouster of a Texas A&M professor teaching about gender identity, and later, to the resignation of the university president.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody thought I could do it,\u201d Harrison said in an interview with The Texas Tribune in his Capitol office last month. \u201cEverybody was mocking me \u2014 I\u2019ve become used to that down here. People didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be able to get the professor fired, much less \u2026 the president of the university \u2014 one of the biggest universities in America \u2014 fired. And then look at the ripple effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Texas A&M incident, Texas Tech University officials limited classroom discussions<\/a> about transgender and nonbinary identities. The University of Texas System confirmed it was reviewing<\/a> all its courses across nine universities that discuss \u201cgender identity.\u201d And the University of North Texas, Texas Women\u2019s University, and the Texas State University System announced course audits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harrison took credit for it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything you\u2019re seeing at Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Angelo State University \u2014 that is 100% a result of my actions,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna stop until this is all done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clockwise<\/p>\n

\n

Clockwise from top left: Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Angelo State University in San Angelo, the University of North Texas in Denton and Texas State University in Denton. Credit: The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

His alma mater<\/p>\n

No university has taken more heat from Harrison than Texas A&M, his alma mater and the place he credits with giving him his political start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love A&M. People forget that,\u201d said Harrison, who transferred to the university in 2002.<\/p>\n

During the summer of 2003, he took a constitutional law class where they discussed the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down the state\u2019s ban on consensual gay sex in Lawrence v. Texas. Two decades later, Harrison was one of the few House Republicans<\/a> to vote to remove the anti-sodomy language from state code, a move he said he supports because it results in less government. The bill passed out of the House this session, but died in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Harrison said that professor \u2014 whom he described as a liberal who didn\u2019t force his personal politics on students \u2014 wrote him a letter of recommendation for a White House internship. That opportunity took him to Washington, D.C., and sparked his career in government after he graduated from A&M with an economics degree in 2004.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

\n

Students walk past Simpson Drill Field at Texas A&M University in College Station on Sept. 18, 2025. Credit: Antranik Tavitian for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

He worked in the Social Security Administration, Health and Human Services Agency, and as a special assistant in an office of Vice President Dick Cheney during George W. Bush\u2019s presidency. After a stint at the U.S. Department of Defense, he moved back to Texas. During that time, he worked in multiple public relations firms, helped his dad with his home building company and, briefly, he and his wife bred and sold labradoodles.<\/p>\n

Harrison moved back to Washington in 2017 to again work for HHS under Trump, where he became Health Secretary Alex Azar\u2019s chief of staff in 2019.<\/p>\n

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Harrison was involved in overseeing the Trump administration\u2019s vaccine rollout.<\/p>\n

At the time, Reuters published an article<\/a> that Trump had appointed a labradoodle breeder to lead a pandemic taskforce, presented as evidence that the administration was mismanaging the COVID response. It led to additional coverage and a joke at his expense<\/a> on Stephen Colbert\u2019s Late Show, marking the first time Harrison was widely ridiculed by the media and cast as ineffective.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe there was a reason I went through what I did before I got here,\u201d Harrison said of that time period. \u201cI want to make a difference \u2026 They have to castigate, they have to impugn my motives. Because, if I\u2019m right, what does that say about them?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, Harrison ran for the open congressional seat in his district and ultimately lost to then-state Rep. Jake Ellzey. He then ran in the special election to replace Ellzey in the state House and won.<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s first legislative session was in 2023, around the same time that conservative higher education activists were starting to rally around ending<\/a> diversity, equity and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers prohibited DEI offices, staff and programming<\/a> at public universities, but carved out exceptions to still allow teaching and research about topics of race and gender. Harrison voted for the legislation.<\/p>\n

But quickly after the law was implemented, he turned his attention to the classroom. <\/p>\n

An early victory<\/p>\n

Harrison got an early taste of an internet-driven victory when Texas A&M eliminated an LGBTQ+ studies minor months after he started posting about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas A&M is offering a MINOR in this?? What. The. Hell,\u201d he wrote in January 2024 on his X account, declaring he would find out if the state was using taxpayer dollars on these programs.<\/p>\n

In this instance, Harrison went to the school directly. He said he met with A&M Provost Alan Sams in January and asked the university to end the program, or otherwise explain its justification for keeping it. The university refused to get rid of the minor at the time, stating that any elimination needed to go through a formal process. So he took his case to X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But before the next legislative session arrived, A&M took action.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, Harrison was the first to publicly announce the minor was going away when he said on X that Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told him the university was eliminating the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cProud to have helped deliver this victory for Texas taxpayers, who should never be forced to fund,\u201d Harrison wrote.<\/p>\n

At a faculty meeting a few weeks later, university leaders denied that political pressure played a role and repeatedly stated that the minor would be cut as a result of low enrollment. Yet faculty questioned why the university wasn\u2019t taking a stronger stance to correct Harrison\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Brian Harrison is publicly taking credit for shutting down the minor,\u201d professor Sarah Beck said at the meeting. \u201cThere has been no statement from the provost office rebutting Harrison\u2019s rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the optics, university officials are loath to credit Harrison\u2019s actions alone for their moves. And Harrison isn\u2019t the only one putting pressure on schools to take stronger action. Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> called for Texas A&M to fire the professor who taught about gender identity, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called Welsh\u2019s handling of the situation \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has a motive for a lot of things they do. I will probably never understand his motives,\u201d Robert Albritton, chair of the Texas A&M board of Regents, told the Tribune. \u201cBut A&M is much bigger than one individual.\u2029And we will continue to be bigger than one individual, and so, we will take all criticism, we\u2019ll evaluate it, and we\u2019ll move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chair<\/p>\n

\n

Texas A&M University system Board of Regents Chair Robert Albritton at a regents’ meeting on Sept. 26, 2025. Credit: Adriano Espinosa for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

Texas Tech University System Board Chair Cody Campbell also denied their recent decision to prohibit conversations about transgender identity had anything to do with Harrison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things he said didn\u2019t have any impact on anything we did,\u201d Campbell told The Tribune.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some faculty who have closely watched Harrison say that he\u2019s just one player in a broader movement of conservatives using their online platforms to push America\u2019s college campuses to reimagine themselves in their image.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got something to kind of stick with what happened to A&M, and so in that way, he\u2019s maybe stood out above the crowd a little bit,\u201d said Karma Chavez, department chair in the Mexican American and Latina\/o Studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. \u201dBut I really do just see him as a symptom of a broader trend in political culture right now in Texas and around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only a matter of time\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Pliley often wonders if she could be next.<\/p>\n

The Texas State University history professor, whose scholarship focuses on gender and sexuality, has watched her colleagues on campus and around the state become social media targets as their public comments or classes have been misconstrued or taken out of context for political gain. The result is a culture of fear and silence instead of open discussion and debate, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been having a lot of conversations with my partner about what will happen when somebody like Brian Harrison targets me,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of me is thinking, \u2018it\u2019s only a matter of time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, she\u2019s taken steps to protect herself from potential online harassment. And she canceled an annual lecture she gives on campus around Halloween about the European and North American witch trials. She worried the themes discussed \u2014 patriarchy, capitalism, and poverty \u2014 could be taken out of context and used against her.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

\n

Texas State University history professor Jessica Pliley poses for a portrait on campus in San Marcos on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

She thinks Harrison is using his online platform to target any idea he disagrees with, which she called \u201canti-democratic\u201d and a violation of student\u2019s ability to choose what they want to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extraordinary,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wanted to get rid of all these courses in the Legislature, and because of the political process, he was not able to do that. So he is moving to a different process of leading a witch hunt through social media to achieve the same goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says people who face the barrage of calls, emails and social media messages when they are in the online crosshairs suffer personal consequences to their mental health. Pliley said she reached out to the Texas State professor who taught the LGBTQ+ communications course Harrison posted about and described her to be in \u201cdeep deep distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capitol \u201cCockroach\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of the president of Texas A&M\u2019s ouster, hard-right national figures celebrated Harrison\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a scalp \u2014 a big one,\u201d Steve Bannon told Harrison on his podcast<\/a>. \u201cThank you, brother. Great work.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBrian Harrison might be the most impactful state legislator in America,\u201d former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida posted on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, most of Harrison\u2019s Republican colleagues in Texas went on ignoring his social media feed, just as they largely ignored him during the legislative session.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because in Austin, Harrison is viewed as a gadfly, with few legislative victories or allies.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s introduced numerous bills<\/a> to prohibit public universities<\/a> from offering courses about LGBTQ topics. But none of his bills advanced in a Legislature that still generally requires its members to go through the process of doing the work to win favor from peers.<\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

\n

Harrison speaks on the phone in the House Chamber in Austin on April 10, 2025. Credit: Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been times when people are extremely sympathetic with his stances, but he\u2019s so combative that they don\u2019t want to ally with him,\u201d Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, said in an interview. \u201cAnd it\u2019s actually counterproductive to what he\u2019s trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison passed zero of his own bills this past session but posted hundreds of times on social media, claiming that Texans were being \u201cbetrayed<\/a>\u201d by their Republican leaders and that his fellow lawmakers were not working<\/a> hard enough for their constituents. In an article declaring Harrison the session\u2019s \u201ccockroach\u201d<\/a> \u2014 a framed printout of which he has proudly displayed in his Capitol office \u2014 Texas Monthly calculated that he posted on X more than 3,500 times over the course of the 140-day session.<\/p>\n

Harrison rejected the idea of passing legislation as a metric of effectiveness \u2014 arguing instead that a lawmaker\u2019s ability to do so was simply a reflection of kowtowing to the \u201cuniparty\u201d leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can pass a bill. It takes no skill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harrison has frequently tried to rile up his social media army against members of his own party, railing against Abbott and House leaders over property taxes<\/a>, DEI in higher education<\/a>, and the so-called empowerment of Democrats<\/a> in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cA stark reminder that show horses show. And work horses work,\u201d Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, posted on social media<\/a>, calling Harrison \u201ctotally and completely absent\u201d in discussions about the state\u2019s ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates \u2014 an outcome Harrison takes credit for.<\/p>\n

Some of Harrison\u2019s allies, meanwhile, say he\u2019s effectively squeezing lawmakers to align with the conservative base.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian\u2019s role is honestly to put pressure on other members through his voice on social media,\u201d Rep. Steve Toth, R-Conroe, said. \u201cIt\u2019s how we all play together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshly emboldened<\/p>\n

After Welsh announced his resignation from Texas A&M amid the controversy over a professor teaching about gender identity, Harrison took a victory lap on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWE DID IT! TEXAS A&M PRESIDENT IS OUT!! Another MASSIVE victory for the LIBERTY BOTS against the Austin Swamp Rats! \u201d he posted<\/a>. Liberty Bots are what he calls his conservative online followers.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n

Then-A&M President Mark A. Welsh III is greeted by A&M faculty and students as he leaves campus after resigning on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. Credit: Cassie Stricker for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

He immediately turned his attention to campaigning against Christian Hardigree, the newly-hire<\/a>d president of Texas A&M University-Victoria.<\/p>\n

Harrison said Hardigree advocated for DEI in her resume because she said she hired a range of faculty from diverse backgrounds in a previous job.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre @GregAbbott_TX<\/a>\u2019s Regents at @tamusystem<\/a> about to hire another DEI advocate as President of A&M Victoria!??\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

But this time, A&M leadership pushed back. Chancellor Glenn Hegar publicly defended Hardigree\u2019s conservative bonafides, fundraising prowess and leadership achievements, taking a swing at those who criticized her.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritics who scour her CV for politically charged buzzwords miss the bigger picture: Her life and career have been defined by service, accountability and results,\u201d Hegar said. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of leadership Texas A&M-Victoria needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chancellor<\/p>\n

\n

Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System Glenn Hegar during a Board of Regents meeting on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. Credit: Adriano Espinosa for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

Harrison took another jab at the University of Texas at Austin, resurrecting posts from earlier this year when he staged an \u201cundercover\u201d investigation at an event organized by the Women\u2019s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department that discussed barriers to health care that transgender people face and mentioned gender affirming care.<\/p>\n

UT-Austin did not respond or make any changes when Harrison first homed in on the event in March, posting images of booklets and saw on campus that mentioned transgender people. <\/p>\n

But Harrison is freshly emboldened \u2014 and unapologetic about the effects of his posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to be a voice for 200,000 people and to maximize their freedom and their liberty,\u201d he said. \u201cI lose no sleep about it. Like, I did the right thing. I know it. And the response has been overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wait is over! The full TribFest<\/a> program is here. Join us Nov. 13\u201315 in downtown Austin and hear from 300+ thinkers, leaders and change-makers shaping Texas\u2019 future. TribFest gives you a front-row seat to what\u2019s next, with 100+ sessions covering education, the economy, policy, culture and more. Explore the program.<\/a><\/p>\n

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3099,3100,392,289,287,3098,27,2687,3097,29,293,28,1927],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brian-harrison","tag-carl-tepper","tag-greg-abbott","tag-higher-education","tag-politics","tag-steve-toth","tag-texas","tag-texas-am-university-system","tag-texas-am-university-college-station","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}