Rice University offers LGBTQ+ services to other colleges in Texas amid new anti-DEI law

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The University of Houston is closing its office of diversity, equity, and inclusion Thursday as the result of Senate Bill 17.

That's the new state law that requires public colleges in Texas to disband such offices by Jan. 1 of next year.

It only applies to public institutions, so the co-presidents of Rice University's student-run LGBTQ+ organization said they started thinking of how they could help as soon as the legislation passed in the spring.

"We wanted to provide the resources we offer to public university students," Rice Pride Co-President Jorge Arnez Gonzalez said.

Their timeline moved up when this school year started, and they learned about the closure at UH.

RELATED: Chronicle reports UH will shut down, DEI and LGBTQ in response to anti-DEI law

In an Instagram post from earlier this week, they provided a statement on how the law will impact LGBTQ+ students, in addition to telling students from public colleges how they could take advantages of services offered by Rice Pride.

The group offers safe-sex products, recommendations from health professionals, and simply a safe, welcoming place.

"Those resources are now available to all public university students who identify with the queer community, so we really hope we can provide that safe space to students," co-president Cole Holladay said.

The co-presidents said they've received interest from about 100 LGBTQ+ students across the state whose college or university will no longer provide such services.

"The LGBTQ+ community is a very marginalized population, and we thought it was very unfair to those populations in those public schools to no longer have those resources," Gonzalez said.

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