In an Abusive Conduct and Harassment Training from the University of California, Davis’ Title IX office, the public university pushed radical gender ideology, including asserting that “trans women are women” and “trans men are men.” In the training, which was characterized as “required” in my student portal and email, the Title IX office force-fed students and staff leftist orthodoxy under the guise of anti-discrimination, but it left the terminology and enforcement of these policies vague.
The training, which was offered both in person and as an online course, claimed people may identify as “nonbinary, agender, genderqueer, gender fluid, Two-Spirit, bigender, pangender, gender nonconforming, gender variant, etc.” It later said students and faculty are to “also use language and support policies and practices that affirm all persons’ ability to live, work, and socialize as their whole selves.”
At the same time, however, UC Davis claimed, “In general, making unpopular statements or articulating positions on controversial issues does not constitute Abusive Conduct.”
How can both of these views coexist? To what language, policies, and practices are students and faculty expected to adhere? Are they ideologically driven or based on an objective standard? Who decides and enforces what students can or can’t say at a public university?
I reached out to the Title IX office with similar questions. I was eventually diverted to the office of strategic communications, which mostly responded with nonspecific policies and pre-approved quotes and phrases that UC Davis recycles across various DEI and Title IX materials.
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