One of the largest state college systems in the United States is being sued for harassment policies that punish students for “misgendering” or making jokes about the gender identity of classmates.

Defending Education (DE) sued the University of California (UC) Thursday for its “unconstitutional speech policies” governing its code of conduct for sexual harassment. DE alleged that the university’s Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment (SVSH) policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. (RELATED: University Professors Beg For Return Of Standardized Tests As Students Can’t Do Basic Math)

UC’s mandatory “Sexual Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education” (SHAPE) training is required of all employees and students to maintain a “community free of sexual harassment, sexual violence, retaliation, and other behavior,” the policy manual notes.

Behavior deemed “harassment” by the university can include “misgendering” someone or even making jokes about the gender identity of a classmate or coworker.

The policy defines sexual harassment as “sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment.” Harassment can take shape in “acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex- or gender-stereotyping, or sexual orientation.”

“These categories also would be interpreted to include conduct based on sex characteristics, […] trans identities, and those who identify as intersex,” the policy adds.

The “intentional or repeated use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s gender identity” is listed as a form of harassment. A student who uses a trans-identifying man’s “dead-name” — the “name that a transgender person was given at birth but that they no longer use” — is liable for punishment from the university, according to the policy manual.

The policy also lists the use of jokes about a person’s sexual orientation as a form of harassment: students who “laugh at a student for ‘acting gay'” are liable for punishment, the manual says.

“Prohibited conduct” is not limited to situations on campus alone, but can occur “off University property and outside the context of a University program or activity” in any conduct the college deems has “adverse effects” on campus environment.

The policy is enforced by the university’s “Systemwide Title IX Director,” who must “interpret this Policy consistently and in a way that does not substantively change the Policy.”

The university candidly admits in the policy that it “would prefer” not to implement many of the pre-Biden-era Title IX regulations that were reimplemented by President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025. The Trump administration regulations rest on the “basis of biological sex.” (RELATED: Democrats Put On Masterclass In Missing The Point During Child Sex Change Hearing)

The policy states the university abides by the Title IX regulations “only when required” for fear of receiving federal funding cuts.

The filed lawsuit objects to UC’s efforts to “coerce” students’ speech on matters of public concern. “Under the guise of ‘sexual harassment,’ UC has enacted a speech code that punishes students for engaging in protected speech and discourages them from expressing views outside of the university-approved mainstream,” the lawsuit writes.

Neither the University of California nor its Systemwide Title IX Director responded immediately to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment.