TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama quietly removed explicit protections for LGBTQ+ people from its systemwide nondiscrimination policies in late 2025 and early 2026, a move critics say reflects a broader retreat from civil rights gains that is hitting the South hardest.
Archives of the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity Programs show that language listing “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” as protected categories was stripped from the system’s Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy and its Harassment Policy between fall 2025 and January 2026. The change was first reported by The Crimson White student newspaper and later confirmed by multiple news outlets.
University officials said the revision was administrative and intended to align policy wording with current federal law.
Alex House, a spokesperson for the university, said the policies were updated to “reflect the current language of relevant federal laws,” including Title VII and Title IX.
House characterized the revision as an administrative change and said the university would continue enforcing the policies as it had before the language was removed.
“The University will continue to promote a welcoming environment that is free from discrimination for all members of our campus community,” House said.
Despite those assurances, the removal of explicit LGBTQ+ categories comes amid a wider pattern of federal and state-level actions that have narrowed civil rights protections, particularly in the South.
Civil rights advocates warn that the University of Alabama’s move mirrors a regional trend in which Southern states and institutions have led efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and scale back protections for LGBTQ+ people, women and racial minorities.
The changes at Alabama follow a 2024 state law restricting DEI programming at public colleges and a series of federal policy shifts that have narrowed how sex discrimination is defined under Title IX and Title VII.
At the same time, other Alabama public universities — including Auburn University, Samford University, the University of South Alabama and the University of West Alabama — still explicitly bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, according to state reporting.
The rollback at one of the South’s flagship public universities carries echoes of the region’s long resistance to civil rights advances. During the 1950s and 1960s, Southern states fiercely opposed federal desegregation orders, with some states and universities only complying after court orders, federal intervention and, in some cases, the closure of schools rather than integration.
Legal scholars and civil rights historians have long described the South as the region that “had to be dragged kicking and screaming” into granting basic civil rights to Black Americans, a phrase that has resurfaced in recent commentary about new efforts to narrow protections for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups.
Advocates say the University of Alabama’s policy change risks sending a chilling message to LGBTQ+ students and employees at a time when other states in the region are advancing similar restrictions on gender-affirming care, classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity, and diversity initiatives.
Even as the systemwide policy pages no longer list LGBTQ+ categories explicitly, other university documents still do.
UA’s current graduate catalog and its Title IX website continue to state that the university prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and describe LGBTQ students and employees as protected from discrimination and harassment.
The discrepancy has fueled concern among students and faculty that the removal of explicit language from the central nondiscrimination and harassment policies could create confusion and weaken accountability, even if enforcement remains unchanged.
For now, the University of Alabama says its policies remain in force. But for many in the campus community and beyond, the quiet erasure of LGBTQ+ protections from key policy documents marks another step in a widening national and regional retreat from civil rights.