Colleges Backtrack on Pride Month

Pride Month is the latest casualty in higher education’s broad retreat from political controversy, at least at some institutions.

While numerous colleges and corporations blasted out messages supportive of the LGBTQ+ community on social media and held related events at the beginning of June, a few others quietly distanced themselves. Several posted and then deleted Pride Month messages on social media. Others have dropped out of local Pride events or issued directives preventing LGBTQ+ Pride flags from flying on campus.

Those moves come amid heightened scrutiny of the LGBTQ+ community under the Trump administration as well as new state laws and system policies that restrict colleges from weighing in on issues such as gender and sexuality. In the last two years, more institutions have adopted institutional neutrality policies.

Some universities are defending their decisions to step back from Pride Month–related programming and messages, while others remain silent as controversy swirls on campus.

Deleted Social Media Posts

First came the rainbow graphics. Then came the second thoughts.

At least three universities posted and subsequently deleted celebratory Pride Month messages: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro and Lamar University in Texas.

“The Tar Heels are for everyone,” UNC Chapel Hill’s athletics account posted on X on June 1.

The post, complete with a rainbow pattern over an outline of the state, was quickly deleted, but not before it was screen captured by conservative activists, who blasted Chapel Hill for the statement.

Chapel Hill officials cited institutional neutrality policies as the reason for the move: “The social post in question was taken down because it violated the UNC System’s Equality Policy, which requires neutrality on political and social issues,” a spokesperson wrote by email.

Roughly 50 miles west, UNC Greensboro sparked a similar controversy when its athletics account posted on June 1, “Happy Pride Month from UNCG Athletics!” complete with a rainbow flag emoji and graphic. That post was also quickly deleted.

“UNCG social media content complies with UNC System policies, including its Equality Policy,” a UNC Greensboro spokesperson wrote in response to a media inquiry from Inside Higher Ed.

Lamar, a public university, hasn’t publicly said why it took down a Pride Month message on its Facebook account that read, “Happy Pride Month, Cardinals!” The message, which included a rainbow color scheme overlaid on a university building, was live for only a few hours before it was deleted. University officials did not respond to requests for comment from Inside Higher Ed or The Houston Chronicle, which first reported on the deleted Pride Month post.

Dropping Local Events

Meanwhile, the University of North Texas dropped plans last month to support a local Pride festival, which organizers say the institution has been involved with since 2017.

Although UNT was initially listed as a sponsor for PRIDENTON, an event in Denton, where the university is located, officials appeared to back out at the last minute. While university officials did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed, a spokesperson confirmed to The Dallas Observer that UNT dropped out due to concerns about noncompliance with state law.

“The university has withdrawn its involvement in the PRIDENTON event. University processes were not followed, and it has been determined that UNT’s participation would violate state law. As a public institution, we strictly adhere to all state law,” the spokesperson said. “UNT will continue to prioritize our values, our students and our people, while ensuring we follow the law.”

University officials have expressed concern about violating SB 17, a far-reaching state law that went into effect in January 2024. The bill ultimately banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices and related resource centers at public institutions in Texas, among other restrictions.

Removing the Rainbow Flag

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools will no longer fly the rainbow Pride flag on its campus or any another other banner that signals support for the LGBTQ+ community. Instead, only the American flag will fly.

The private K–12 school, which is affiliated with the university, has raised the Pride flag since 2022 following the request of students. But the school’s interim director—Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, who also serves as dean of UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy—told the K–12 community by email that practice would not continue this year. Specifically, he cited the university’s institutional neutrality policy, which emerged from the Kalven report written by a University of Chicago professor in 1967. That report has long underpinned such policies.

“This decision is not Pride-specific, Lab-specific, or related to the Standards for Viewpoint-Neutral Education,” he wrote in the email. “It reflects a longstanding university practice—grounded in the university’s understanding of the Kalven Report’s position on institutional speech—that only the American flag is flown from University flagpoles.”

A university spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to Inside Higher Ed that a committee, which included University of Chicago faculty members, reviewed the school last year and concluded that “in some areas Lab’s practices had fallen out of alignment with the University’s, and that should be addressed.” The flag was one such case.

The university denied that the change meant they were backtracking on LGBTQ+ support.

“This does not indicate a change in Lab’s recognition of Pride Month; Lab and the University will continue to work so that LGBTQ+ students and families are fully welcome and supported. To be clear, the full membership of LBGTQ+ people in the Lab community is a core value,” they wrote.

But some UChicago faculty members rejected the university’s explanation.

In a letter signed by more than 300 faculty members, the UChicago chapter of the American Association of University Professors pointed to recent examples in which neutrality policies had been leveraged at other institutions to shut down discussions of critical issues.

“There is no reason to believe we are immune to this danger, given the economic and political pressures on the university,” they wrote, suggesting it was already happening at the Lab School.

Rebranding Pride Month

Some institutions that have historically not celebrated Pride Month took a different approach.

The Centennial Institute, a think tank at Colorado Christian University, posted on Facebook, “June is Fidelity Month!” The post is a nod to a recent push by conservative Princeton University professor Robert George to refocus June on “fidelity to God, spouses and families, and our country and communities,” according to a website set up to support the effort. (Several Republican governors have also thrown their support behind Fidelity Month.)

“As proud partners of this initiative, we are dedicated to recommitting our nation to God, Family, and Country—foundational elements essential to the next 250 years of American Exceptionalism,” the Centennial Institute wrote.

The Standing for Freedom Center at Liberty University, an evangelical institution in Virginia, also took aim at Pride Month in an Instagram post with several slides emphasizing marriage between a man and a woman.

“Sorry, Pride Month,” the post said. “It’s Family Month Now.”