Training module warns calling students by their ‘deadname’ is ‘sexual harassment’
California universities are reportedly using state harassment prevention laws to compel students to endorse transgender ideology, with failure to comply potentially barring them from enrolling in classes.
Across the University of California system, all students are required to take sexual violence and sexual harassment prevention training under a program dubbed SHAPE (Sexual Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education).
Delivered through mandatory online training and testing modules focused on sexual harassment and anti-discrimination, the required training asserts that failing to use one’s self-declared trans pronouns or protesting the presence of men in women’s restrooms constitutes a hostile environment and qualifies as harassment.
Students must achieve a perfect score on the module’s questions, aligned with these views, to proceed with semester registration.
A screenshot from the SHAPE training, first shared by Young America’s Foundation last month, defines a “Hostile Environment” as a situation where “someone demands that others use a particular bathroom that does not correspond to their gender identity or uses the incorrect pronoun.”
Another screenshot of a sample situation found on the SHAPE module states: “My name is Mona and I am transgender. My classmate Jane continues to call me James, which was my name before I transitioned. Jane refers to me as a man, and complains when I use the women’s restroom. I’ve asked her to stop [but] she does not. I feel very disrespected and want this to stop. What type of prohibited conduct can this be?”
While users are given several options such as “sexual exploitation,” “relationship violence,” “quid pro quo,” and “hostile environment,” only “hostile environment” is deemed a correct response.
The module adds, “Intentionally calling someone their name used prior to transition, as opposed to their lived name, is called dead-naming; and may be a form of sexual harassment.”
This initiative stems from AB 2608, a 2024 California law mandating sexual harassment and discrimination training for all students, along with updated terminology and definitions. AB 2925 further broadens “harassment” to encompass creating a hostile environment.
Although universities are not obligated to adopt SHAPE specifically, they must develop programs consistent with these standards. Several University of California campuses have implemented SHAPE, including UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine.
The Christian Post reached out to UC San Diego for comment and will update this article if a response is received.
The University of California Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence Policy defines sexual harassment as: “Other sex-based conduct includes acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex- or gender-stereotyping, or sexual orientation.”
While SHAPE and other programs have already gained a foothold in the UC system, critics say the training serves to further elevate ideological conformity over open discourse. “The reality and science-denying stooges at the University of California, San Diego, have shredded their institution’s ability to call itself a place of higher education by giving in to the radical Left’s gender ideology and endangering female students,” Young America’s Foundation Chief Communications Officer Spencer Brown said.
“It is not sexual harassment to require students to use the restroom, locker room, or other facility that corresponds with their biological sex, but it is egregious to require female students to use bathrooms with biological men and force all students to agree that such a policy is normal or safe,” Brown added.
“When universities start treating disagreement as harassment, they stop being places of learning and become engines of indoctrination,” California Family Council (CFC) VP Greg Burt said. “Silencing biblical beliefs about gender and sexuality isn’t tolerance. It’s tyranny in disguise. CFC will not back down from defending students’ right to speak truth in love.”
