Wyoming’s anti-DEI law is ‘a tool for censorship,’ free speech group says

Dive Brief:

• PEN America on Friday condemned Wyoming lawmakers for a new law that bans public colleges from having diversity, equity or inclusion programs and restricts certain classroom instruction, effective July 1.
• The language of the law is “incredibly vague and broad” and functions as “a tool for censorship and suppression,” Amy Reid, senior manager of PEN America’s Freedom to Learn initiative, said in a statement.
• The law comes as the state flagship, the University of Wyoming, is one of more than 50 institutions being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education over allegations that their programs and scholarships have race-based restrictions.

Dive Insight:

Wyoming’s new statute, signed into law earlier this month, bars public colleges, K-12 schools and government entities from requiring instruction “promoting institutional discrimination.” 

That includes courses and trainings teaching that anyone is “inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously” due to race, sex and other protected traits. The law also forbids instruction that someone is “inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity or national origin.”

In addition, public colleges may not have DEI initiatives, which the statute defines as “any program, activity or policy that promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals or classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity or national origin.” 

PEN America argued the law’s broad language could ban everything from religious affinity groups to single-sex dormitories on college campuses to girls’ sports teams at middle and high schools.

“This law effectively takes a battering ram to public education in Wyoming,” Reid said. The law imposes “an educational gag order” and “a prohibition on any sort of activity or program which recognizes the groups and attributes that make up American society,” she said.

It carved out an exemption for programs and policies related to federally recognized American Indian tribes, but it did not address potential DEI requirements imposed by accreditors or the federal government.

PEN America noted similarities between the restrictions on instruction in Wyoming’s new law and Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, which has been mired in court challenges since its 2022 enactment. 

The Florida law sought to limit how the state’s public colleges could teach certain topics related to race and gender. The same year, a federal judge blocked portions of the law at the state’s colleges over free speech violations. Florida continues to face legal challenges over the sweeping legislation.

The University of Wyoming said Friday that it has cut all required DEI-related trainings and instruction that promote “DEI concepts or ‘institutional discrimination'” in response to the new law, despite the ban not going into effect until July.