The governor of Alabama signed into law legislation on Wednesday that will restrict so-called “divisive concepts” as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and transgender people’s access to campus restrooms, in spite of protests from students on several campuses.

Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, issued a statement saying, “My administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, but I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses—or anywhere else, for that matter—to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe.” “I am very confident that Alabama will continue to uphold its core values of treating people fairly, embracing diversity in cultures and backgrounds, and supporting academic freedom.”

A governor’s spokeswoman told Inside Higher Ed there would be no further comment Thursday. The GOP-controlled state Legislature had finished passing the legislation Tuesday.

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In a particular concern for free speech advocates, Senate Bill 129 could stop faculty members from teaching about what the bill dubs “divisive concepts”—such as the idea that meritocracy is racist—even in a critical way. Jeremy Young, the Freedom to Learn program director at PEN America, has said it would be “the most restrictive educational gag order in the country” affecting higher education.

It is a component of the fresh wave of anti-DEI legislation of this year, which also has effects on education.

The bill “would restrict discussions of American history and culture in a variety of disciplines by prohibiting professors from assigning different ideas about the challenging issues of race, gender, and identity,” according to Lily D. McNair, the former president of Tuskegee University, in an opinion piece published in the Alabama Reflector on Wednesday. A clause that would prohibit professors from teaching books or movies in which the author just admits that they feel responsible for past wrongs is considerably worse and exclusive to SB 129.

“Bills like SB 129 threaten to take away the very ideals my father defended—and to replace prudent education with costly ignorance, undoing the work of past generations to educate the citizens of Alabama,” the author said, referring to her father’s military service.