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The Crimson White investigation reveals University of Alabama System quietly removed LGBTQ-inclusive language from non-discrimination policies

The Crimson White reported on July 22, 2026 that the University of Alabama System had quietly removed sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression from the protected-class language in its Harassment and Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination policies, based on Wayback Machine snapshots showing gender-identity references gone by September 2025 and sexual-orientation references gone by January 2026. UAB also removed a broader diversity and equal-opportunity overview page from its site the same way. University spokesperson Alex House called it an "administrative change" made to align with federal law and said enforcement was unchanged; the removal itself was never publicly announced.

Jurisdiction
Alabama
Location
Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Huntsville, Alabama

Abuses documented

Actors

  • University of Alabama System

On July 22, 2026, The Crimson White, the University of Alabama's student newspaper, reported that the University of Alabama System had quietly removed sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression from the protected-class language in its Harassment and Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination policies. The finding was based on archived copies of the policy documents and Wayback Machine snapshots of the University's Office of Equal Opportunity Programs website, which show the language disappearing in stages: mentions of gender identity and gender expression were gone by September 2025, and mentions of sexual orientation followed by January 2026 -- with no source documenting the exact day of either change. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) revised their own equal-opportunity policy pages the same way; UAB also removed its broader diversity and equal-opportunity policy overview page from its website entirely. No other public university in Alabama made the same change.

University spokesperson Alex House said the changes were made to "reflect the current language of relevant federal laws," including Title VII and Title IX, and characterized the edits as an "administrative change." The University's policy had explicitly protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity since at least 2018, spanning the period when the Biden administration's Department of Education extended Title IX protections to LGBTQ students and employees under the Supreme Court's Bostock v. Clayton County reasoning. Those Title IX changes were blocked as applied to Alabama by a 2024 multistate lawsuit and were then rescinded nationally in early 2026 by the second Trump administration, which the University cited as the basis for its policy edit.

The policy revision was never publicly announced. It surfaced only when The Crimson White reported it on July 22, 2026; Alabama Reflector, The Advocate, and Birmingham Free Press published their own coverage in the following days, between August 1 and August 4, 2026. Patricia Todd, who chairs the LGBTQ-rights group Alabama Equality, called the removal "very disappointing," while UAB spokesperson Alicia Rohan said a reference to "all faculty and staff" on UAB's human-resources page "sufficiently covers equal opportunity." University officials maintain that enforcement of the underlying non-discrimination protections is unchanged despite the removed language.

Why we recorded this

Non-discrimination policies are a structural civil-rights safeguard: explicit protected-class language gives students and employees a documented basis to invoke when discrimination occurs. The University of Alabama System quietly stripped sexual orientation and gender identity from that language in its core equal-opportunity and harassment policies, a change it left undisclosed for roughly six to ten months, depending on which protected category, until a student newspaper investigation surfaced it. This archive records when a public institution weakens the written civil-rights protections in its own governing policy without informing the community those protections cover.

Sources

  1. UA removes explicit discrimination, harassment protections for sexual orientation, gender — The Crimson White investigative accessed August 5, 2026
  2. University of Alabama schools remove LGBTQ+ language from non-discrimination policies — Alabama Reflector investigative accessed August 5, 2026
  3. University of Alabama quietly abandons sexual orientation & gender identity nondiscrimination policy — The Advocate secondary accessed August 5, 2026
  4. As Civil Rights Retreat in The South, UA Removes LGBTQ+ Protections — Birmingham Free Press secondary accessed August 5, 2026

See also