US Supreme Court permits campus drag show ban

The US Supreme Court has given a public university the right, on at least a temporary basis, to ban a student group from hosting a drag show on campus.

In a case that’s been pending for about a year, the nation’s top court issued without comment an order allowing the ban by the president of West Texas A&M University to remain in effect during legal proceedings in the case.

The university’s president, Walter Wendler, last year prohibited the show from being held on campus, saying it promoted caricatures of women that he considered “derisive, divisive and demoralising”.

The event’s organiser, the student-led campus LGBTQ group Spectrum WT, then moved their cabaret show off campus and sued West Texas A&M.

The Supreme Court’s action, backing Dr Wendler for now, comes just ahead of this month’s edition of the annual show, for which students continued to sell tickets while awaiting any response from the president.

A West Texas A&M spokesperson, asked about the matter, repeated the university’s past refusals to comment on the matter, citing its stance regarding pending litigation.

Campus resource collection: The rainbow university

The showdown stems in part from a state law passed last year in Texas that restricts or prohibits some public drag shows. Lower courts so far have differed on the question of whether the law violates constitutional free speech protections.

One main issue is the question of children at the show. Student organisers said they welcomed attendees aged under 18 if accompanied by a parent. A federal judge who ruled in favour of the ban, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump administration appointee, said the presence of children changed the free speech protection. This year’s edition also is advertised as open to minors with parental accompaniment.

West Texas A&M is a 9,000-student campus in a rural and conservative northern part of Texas. The dispute, however, is part of a series of political attacks across much of the US against student rights in general, and LGBTQ protections in particular, that have risen up in recent years.

The drag show serves a fundraiser for a national organisation that provides counselling and suicide prevention services for LGBT+ youth. Last year’s cancellation of the on-campus event led to a week of student protests.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com