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COLLEGE STATION — It was the third week of Texas A&M’s summer semester and students in the ENGL 360: Literature for Children class were reading “Jude Saves the World,” a novel that features a 12-year-old protagonist who navigates coming out as nonbinary.

On the projector screen, Professor Melissa McCoul shared a graphic of a purple “gender unicorn,” often used to teach the differences between gender identity, expression and sexuality.

As the discussion began, one student angled a phone in her lap, pressed record on a video and then raised her hand.

“I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching,” said the student, who went o

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