University of South Carolina removes gender and pronoun menus from application after contact by US representative
The University of South Carolina was recently exposed for including gender and pronoun menus on its admissions application despite a Trump executive order.
The school removed the menus after being contacted by US Rep. Nancy Mace, but blamed the inclusion on a third-party contractor.
A university recently came under fire for including gender and pronoun sections on its admissions application despite federal crackdowns on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The University of South Carolina was exposed in a post from Libs of TikTok, which shared screenshots of the application and called for the Department of Education to defund the school.
The screenshots show two sections, “gender identity” and “personal pronouns,” each with a drop-down menu of options. The gender identity menu included options such as “agender,” “genderqueer,” and “gender nonconforming,” while the personal pronouns section included options such as “ey, em, eir, emself” and “yo, yo, yos, yoself.”
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace (R) responded to the post later that day, saying that she had reached out to the university to inquire about the menus.
“After learning of YET ANOTHER gender form listing more than a dozen made-up ‘gender identities’ on the University of South Carolina’s website, we reached out — and had it taken down,” Mace wrote. “We appreciate USC’s VERY swift response and IMMEDIATE removal.”
The incident comes in the wake of the federal government’s crackdown on DEI in higher education. In an executive order entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” the Trump administration calls on the head of every federal agency to “include in every grant or award … a term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to agree that its compliance with all Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the government’s payment decisions …”
The university denied accountability in its own X post, instead blaming the company that developed the application.
“This form is managed by a third-party contractor,” the school wrote. “We’ve asked them to remove the pronoun and gender identity fields. We don’t collect, store, or use pronoun/gender identity info in admissions. We only collect legal sex, which is used for federal and state reporting requirements.”
Libs of TikTok asked the school to provide the name of the contractor, but the university did not respond.
All relevant parties have been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
