South Carolina Legislature Punishes State Universities for Assigning LGBT-themed Books

On June 12, 2014, in a deeply disappointing development, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley approved a provision in the state’s budget that punished two state universities—the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina Upstate—for including LGBT-themed books as required reading for freshmen. The troublesome provision required the two institutions to spend the same amount of funds allocated in 2013 on the LGBT-themed books to instead teach the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Federalist Papers, “including the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals.” FIRE wrote to Governor Haley on March 12, 2014, to urge her against punishing state institutions for their choice of curriculum.