Federal Judge Says Texas A&M Can Host Drag Show
A federal judge has stopped Texas A&M's board from banning drag shows on campus.
Lee H. Rosenthal, who was appointed as a federal judge by former President George H. W. Bush, wrote a Memorandum and Opinion on Monday that any student who finds the 'Draggieland' performance 'offensive has a simple remedy: don't go.'
'The Board, and some members of the A&M community, are offended by the Draggieland performance,' Rosenthal wrote. 'To ban the performance from taking place on campus because it offends some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment prohibits.'
She also noted the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents failed to prove that drag shows cause harassment of female students.
In February, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents passed a resolution banning all drag performances on its 11 campuses, including Texas A&M's Draggieland performance, which is set to take place Thursday.
The board cited President Donald Trump's executive order that states ''sex' is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of 'gender identity,'' and wrote in its resolution that drag shows are 'inconsistent with the System's mission and core values of its Universities, including the value of respect for others.'
After the board banned drag performances, the Queer Empowerment Council, a student group that hosts Draggieland, filed a lawsuit to stop the ban, alleging the ban violated their First Amendment rights, according to the Texas Tribune.
Rosenthal wrote in her memorandum that Trump's executive order doesn't refer to or apply to drag shows, and that Draggieland doesn't deny the existence of the male and female sexes.
In a statement to HuffPost, the board of regents said the Texas A&M University System received the opinion, and they are evaluating next steps.
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