FIRE Files First Amendment Lawsuit Challenging Texas A&M Drag Show Ban
Texas A&M's Board of Regents voted to ban drag shows on the grounds that they objectify women and violate state and federal policies against promoting "gender ideology."
The Texas A&M University System is now facing a First Amendment lawsuit after its Board of Regents voted to ban drag shows across its 11 campuses last Friday, including a show scheduled for later this month.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today on behalf of a Texas A&M student group, the Queer Empowerment Council, arguing that the Board of Regents' vote violated its First Amendment against viewpoint discrimination by the government.
"Public universities can't shut down student expression simply because the administration doesn't like the 'ideology' or finds the expression 'demeaning,'" FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh said in a press release. "That's true not only of drag performances, but also religion, COVID, race, politics, and countless other topics where campus officials are too often eager to silence dissent."
Last Friday, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents unanimously passed a resolution to ban drag performances on campuses, finding that "it is inconsistent with the system's mission and core values of its universities, including the value of respect for others, to allow special event venues of the universities to be used for drag shows."
The resolution states that drag shows are "likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women," including "mockery or objectification." It also claims that hosting drag shows "may be considered promotion of gender ideology" in violation of President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive orders, the latter of which instructs state agencies to "comply with the law and the biological reality that there are only two sexes—male and female"
The resolution instructs presidents and chancellors to cancel any upcoming drag shows. That includes a March 27 drag show, "Draggieland," organized by the Queer Empowerment Council on the College Station campus. The 18-and-older, student-run drag show has run for the past five years.
"We refuse to let Texas A&M dictate which voices belong on campus," the Queer Empowerment Council said in a press release. "Drag is self-expression, drag is discovery, drag is empowerment, and no amount of censorship will silence us."
The group's complaint claims the ban violates two core First Amendment principles.
"On campus or off, officials who cancel a future stage performance impose a prior restraint, the most pernicious form of censorship," the Queer Empowerment Council's complaint states. "And in suppressing speech because it 'promotes gender ideology,' the Board members explicitly embrace the viewpoint discrimination forbidden by the First Amendment, targeting speech due to its perceived ideology."
The lawsuit is the latest culture war battle at Texas A&M, and in the Lone Star State at large, over drag shows.
FIRE filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the president of West Texas A&M University, Walter Wendler, after he canceled a charity drag show on campus to raise money for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention. The president claimed drag shows demeaned women and compared them to blackface minstrel shows.
FIRE's suit called Wendler's edict "textbook viewpoint discrimination" that chills student speech. However, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Matthew Kacsmaryk denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against West Texas A&M University from banning drag shows on campus. Kacsmaryk, citing conservative sources such as the Manhattan Institute's Chris Rufo, held that drag was not categorically protected speech under the First Amendment and that the university could regulate vulgar and lewd content.
"Because men dressed in attire stereotypically associated with women is not 'overtly political' in a category of performative conduct that runs the gamut of transvestism…it is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive," Kacsmaryk wrote.
That ruling is currently on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Later in 2023, another U.S. District Court judge struck down a Texas anti-drag law, finding that drag performances were, as most U.S. courts have found, expressive content protected by the First Amendment.
"Drag shows express a litany of emotions and purposes, from humor and pure entertainment to social commentary on gender roles," U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas David Hittner wrote. "There is no doubt that at the bare minimum these performances are meant to be a form of art that is meant to entertain, alone this would warrant some level of First Amendment protection."
