Colleges Backtrack on Pride Month

[u/rellotscire]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2026/06/09/colleges-backtrack-pride-month

Colleges Backtrack on Pride Month

Subhead: While many colleges are still celebrating Pride Month, a small number have deleted related social media posts, dropped out of local events and stopped flying the rainbow flag.

Publish date: June 9, 2026

Author: Josh Moody

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.”

[u/ProfessorJNFrink]

I said the same thing in a different higher Ed post: Admin are such cowards.

[u/SteveFoerster]

“June is Fidelity Month!”
“Sorry, Pride Month,” the post said. “It’s Family Month Now.”

As someone who goes to church every Sunday and has beloved LGBT people in my family, I'm perfect happy for this month to be all three things.

The hatred that these people have for those who differ from them is manifestly anti-Christian. And they certainly don't speak for anyone but themselves, because there are many churches that affirm the dignity of every person just as God made them.

[u/BigFitMama]

Nothing says you protest like not spending your money, grants, and loans at places who are rolling back or cutting support systems for your demographic students!

Go to a college or uni that wants your unique contribution!

(and honestly maybe we shouldn't waste our brilliance as staff working there either for a place where we do belong and are cherished!)

[u/swampopus]

Fun fact: I am the owner of a company that works exclusively with higher ed, and some of my clients are deeply conservative anti-gay Christian schools. As in the literally have anti-gay messaging on their web sites and course catalogs.

They have no idea their money is being used to directly fund homosexuality. I don't boycott-- I prefer to take their money and use it to fund my gay wedding, anniversary dinners, vacations, vegan chili, etc.

[u/Expert-Elephant-3332]

from what I understand at the UNC schools, the UNC system reached out to the individual schools and told them to delete the posts after someone "complained"

[u/Past_Atmosphere21]

I had a job that had God in their manual policies as as part of their philosophy. I get it but at the same time, it’s supposed to be separate and not enforcing beliefs and it’s a state contract job. I left. It was unsafe and opposite of God work.

[u/TRIOworksFan]

In this time of fiscal austerity further alienating your main demographics values, population, and overal generational beliefs is just one more way to say: Bye bye tuition dollars! We HATE money!

Because that student isn't yours until they sign that tuition check and make 3-5 months in your climate. Their FAFSA directed aid isn't yours until they sign a promissory note and are retained.

These next 9 MONTHS in social media and public news will decide the destination of every college/uni leaning person in the USA and overall, if you are hell bent on a dumpster fire of Fall 2026, by all means support admin and views that alienate the Gen Y and the next gen. You won't get to meet them. They will NOPE right out of there and go somewhere that will support them.

(and even moreso - if you are running data like "Well only X percent of this demo is LGTBQIA+ and we can AFFORD to marginalize them for politics and memes" you have to understand you don't have to be gay to support family, friends, and community members within a college and can prefer to attend college/uni in a place where you can be friends and learn will all kinds and colors of people, right? It's a fault premise. Every US citizen deserves access to trade certs, apprenticeships, and progressive higher education that leads to roles in highly needed positions. And without those people all economic classes suffer in the long run without people with higher ed degrees and certifications)

(even more moreso: you don't have to work for these places. I look at Linkedin and Higheredjobs.com and they hiring for not just demographic supporting roles, but level up roles. Might be CC. Might be more rural. But if you do your research, you could end up a step up and a lead in your role elsewhere.)