Supreme Court Stays Out of Dispute Over Drag Show at Texas University
The New York Times
An L.G.B.T.Q. student group had asked the justices to intercede, saying the performance was protected by the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from an L.G.B.T.Q. student group at a public university in Texas to let it put on a drag show on campus over the objections of the university’s president, who had refused to allow it.
In an emergency application, the students said the president’s action violated the First Amendment.
As is the court’s custom when ruling on emergency matters, the justices’ brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents.
Drag shows are increasingly a target of the right, with some Republican-led states, including Florida and Tennessee, seeking to restrict the performances.
The student group, Spectrum WT, first sought to sponsor the drag show, a charity event to raise money for suicide prevention, in March 2023. Walter Wendler, the president of West Texas A&M University, canceled it, citing the Bible and other religious texts.
Drag shows, he said, “are derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny.”
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