Texas students sued to keep their drag show on campus. They won.

Washington Post

28-03-2025

Sophia Ahmed delivered the news on Monday with a two-word message in all capital letters: 'WE WON.'
A court had ruled that the annual, on-campus drag show she and classmates at Texas A&M University had organized could still happen this Thursday.
Since May, the students had booked a theater, selected performers and started selling tickets — plans the university system interrupted last month by banning drag events on its campuses, citing President Donald Trump's 'Day 1' executive order on gender ideology.
A week later, the Texas A&M student group hosting 'Draggieland' sued, putting the fate of the drag show in the hands of a federal judge.
Blocking the show 'because it offends some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment prohibits,' U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal wrote Monday in a ruling that temporarily lifted the university system's ban. After the decision came down, Ahmed, president of the group hosting the show, the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council, spread the word to fellow organizers.
Preparations — and ticket sales — resumed. Doors will open Thursday at the university's Rudder Theatre in College Station.
'It boils down to being an example of queer joy on campus,' Ahmed said.
Lawyers from the Texas attorney general's office, which is representing the university system, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. After the ruling, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote on X that drag shows 'promote radical gender ideology. They are not welcome at Texas universities.'
In Texas and across the country, conservative lawmakers have targeted drag performances in recent years as part of a larger effort aimed at restricting LGBTQ+ rights. Trump has taken this conservative priority to new heights since assuming office, with attempts to hinder access to gender-affirming care for people under 19 and ban transgender adults from military service.
Two years ago, the president of West Texas A&M University — part of the same system as the College Station flagship — canceled a student-organized drag show, writing that drag events 'denigrate and demean women' and comparing them with blackface.
But Texas A&M's 'Draggieland' had never faced a threat of this magnitude in its five-year run. For a time, the university had even sponsored the show, whose title combines drag with students' 'Aggie' nickname. When the school ceased its sponsorship before the 2022 show, students took over fundraising, and they continued putting on the show every year at Rudder Theatre. Hundreds have watched local drag performers compete in a themed pageant for the title of Queen or King of 'Draggieland.'
For this year's show, planning started smoothly.
In the summer, organizers picked showrunners and settled on a theme, 'Slaying the Seven Seas.' In the fall, they held auditions and nailed down finances. Come winter, ticket sales started. Students planned the production in intricate detail, down to purchasing ornaments on clearance after the holidays and painting them an iridescent white to serve as pearls for the show's set design.
'This couldn't have happened had we not started planning so far in advance,' Ahmed said.
They paused their planning on Feb. 28 when the Texas A&M Board of Regents adopted a resolution banning drag shows on its campuses.
Drag performances, the resolution said, 'often involve unwelcome and objectively offensive conduct' and 'are likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women.'
The board cited Trump's executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used to 'promote gender ideology' — and Abbott's support of that order — before stipulating that on-campus drag shows 'may be considered promotion of gender ideology' under the new directive. The resolution noted that students seeking to put on drag shows could access off-campus and private spaces near the system's schools.
On March 5, the Queer Empowerment Council sued the board, the system's chancellor and the Texas A&M University president in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
'What's offensive and what's not offensive is purely subjective, and that's a line that the First Amendment forbids government officials from being able to draw on campus or off,' said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is representing the students.
'Draggieland' performers frequently — but not always — make clothing choices to 'deliberately contrast with their expected gender presentation,' and are not nude or partially nude, the lawsuit states. It adds that the event is exclusively funded by students, and lists examples of previous and upcoming events at Rudder Theatre. They include a panel by the school's Christian Faculty Network, a speech by Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, a production of the musical 'Chicago' and a 'Ready to Vote Tour' event featuring former Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke, according to the lawsuit.
While they waited for a ruling, the students considered their options. Could they host the show at a different venue? Would a different date work?
They wanted to put on the show no matter what, Ahmed said, but having it on campus felt crucial.
'It's a display of queer resilience,' she said. 'No matter what you try, queer people will be here to stay.'
On Monday, Rosenthal's temporary ruling made the backup plans unnecessary. The show would go on as scheduled.
On Thursday, when the show begins and the blue and green lights transport attendees to the seas for the night, Ahmed will be there, sitting in the theater with hundreds of other showgoers as in past years.
She will be cheering and screaming from the start, she said, because the students had fought for this moment — and they won.
Daniel Wu contributed to this report.