A federal judge has blocked Texas A&M University’s ban on drag shows, ruling that the public university system’s interpretation of a recent executive order from President Trump unconstitutionally limits free speech.
In a 29-page opinion signed Monday, Senior Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas cited the Supreme Court’s precedent of requiring state-run campuses to “toe the constitutional line” by neutrally respecting student expression.
Her preliminary injunction allows the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council, a student LGBTQ group at A&M’s College Station flagship campus, to host its sixth annual “Draggieland” — a pun on the school’s “Aggies” nickname for students — on Thursday night as scheduled.
“It is a ticketed event; only those who want to attend do so,” wrote Judge Rosenthal, a George H.W. Bush appointee. “Anyone who finds the performance or performers offensive has a simple remedy: don’t go.”
College Station is an agriculture and military campus of 79,114 students with the largest public college enrollment in the country. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Texas A&M University System said it was reviewing the judge’s opinion and potential next steps.
In a statement, the Queer Empowerment Council applauded the ruling.
“This is another display of the resilience of queer joy, as that is an unstoppable force despite those that wish to see it destroyed,” the council said. “While this fight isn’t over, we are going to appreciate the joy we get to bring by putting on the best show that we can do.”
According to court papers, student performers engage in cross-dressing but remain fully clothed as they “participate in a pageant to try to win the title of ’Queen/King of Draggieland.’”
The council sued the Texas A&M University System, which enrolls over 150,000 students on 11 campuses statewide, after the A&M Board of Regents on Feb. 28 banned the sold-out show from campus and canceled its annual reservation for Rudder Theatre.
In a resolution, the Board of Regents cited Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order on gender ideology and a Jan. 30 letter from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as it noted the availability of “alternative locations for such events at off-campus venues and private facilities.”
“Given that both the System and the Universities receive significant federal funding, the use of facilities at the Universities for Drag Show Events may be considered promotion of gender ideology in violation of the Executive Order and the Governor’s directive,” the resolution stated.
In his order, Mr. Trump attacked attempts to “eradicate the biological reality” of differences between men and women but did not mention drag performances.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the president wrote. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
In rejecting the A&M Board of Regents’ argument, Judge Rosenthal noted that “the commitment to free speech on campuses has been both challenging and challenged” in recent years.
“There have been efforts from all sides of the political spectrum to disrupt or prevent students, faculty, and others from expressing opinions and speech that are deemed, or actually are, offensive or wrong,” she wrote in her ruling. “But the law requires the recognition and application of speech rights and guardrails that preserve and protect all our treasured First Amendment rights.”
Attorneys for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philadelphia free speech group, represented the Queer Empowerment Council in court.
“The court reaffirmed that state university officials cannot block student expression they claim is offensive,” said Adam Steinbaugh, a FIRE attorney. “State officials should stop trying to score political points at the expense of students’ First Amendment rights.”
According to the New Tolerance Campaign, a right-leaning watchdog group not involved in the case, Judge Rosenthal’s ruling highlights the limits of conservative backlash against gender-bending expressions.
“At some point, a segment of conservatives moved from rightfully banning drag shows for kids and ’drag queen story hours’ marketed to children at public libraries to seeking to ban drag shows altogether,” said Gregory T. Angelo, NTC president and a former head of the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ group. “That seems like overreach. When we fall into the trap of banning everything on university campuses we disagree with, we fall into the same cancel-culture bubble advanced by the left.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.