DENTON, Texas — The University of North Texas removed the webpage for its LGBTQ+ Archive after Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison and Republican donor Monty Bennett criticized the university’s decision to host the collection.
Harrison, a Republican from Midlothian, posted screenshots of the archive’s webpage Friday on X and Facebook. The page described the collection as an effort to document the history and culture of LGBTQ+ communities in the South and Southwest.
Harrison accused UNT and the state of using taxpayer money to promote what he called “transgender indoctrination.”
Bennett, a hotel executive and Republican donor, also criticized the archive on social media several hours later, calling it “leftist activism and gender ideology.”
Harrison said Saturday that UNT had removed the webpage after his posts and called on the university to end the archive program.
The removed page described the LGBTQ+ Archive as a collaborative collecting project that preserves primary sources such as letters, photographs, newspapers, magazines, diaries, organizational records, posters and other materials related to LGBTQ+ history.
The university’s broader library records continue to list the LGBTQ+ Archive among its major collecting areas. UNT Special Collections also continues to maintain LGBTQ+ materials in its digital library and archival databases.
UNT’s Resource Center LGBT Collection, one of the collections associated with the archive, contains 643 boxes of materials documenting LGBTQ+ communities, organizations and activism in North Texas.
The digital library currently lists more than 15,600 items in its LGBT Collections, including newspapers, photographs, letters, videos, legal documents and other archival materials.
The university had not publicly explained why it removed the specific archive webpage as of the latest reporting.
Harrison celebrated the webpage’s removal but said the university should go further.
“UNT must end the program, not just a website,” Harrison wrote.
The dispute comes amid broader efforts from Texas Republican officials to limit or eliminate gender- and race-related programs at public universities.
Harrison has previously criticized LGBTQ+-related programming and instruction at Texas universities. His criticism of a Texas A&M University class that included a book featuring a nonbinary character drew national attention and preceded disciplinary action against a professor and the resignation of university President Mark A. Welsh III.
Other Texas universities have also changed or eliminated gender and race-related academic programs in recent years.
The latest dispute centers on the removal of the UNT archive’s public landing page, while the university’s underlying LGBTQ+ archival materials remain accessible through its library systems.
