On Tuesday, the Alabama state legislature passed a bill that defunds Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at public universities.
Now awaiting Republican Governor Kay Ivey’s signature, the bill could go into effect by October 1. Alongside public universities, it would strip funding from school boards and other government agencies pushing DEI initiatives.
The legislation also requires students to use restrooms associated with the biological sex rather than their gender identity and bans the dissemination of “divisive concepts” rooted in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and related ideologies, suggesting certain groups — principally white people — are “inherently responsible for actions committed in the past” or should “accept, acknowledge, affirm or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity or a need to apologize.”
Republican state Rep. Ed Oliver, one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said DEI initiatives “deepen divisions, set up race-exclusionary programs and indoctrinate students into a far-left political ideology.”
The Alabama legislation advances as the University of Florida is firing all DEI staff.
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