Students Plan ‘Day of Drag’ To Protest Texas A&M’s Ban on Drag Shows and ‘Draggieland’

A student group at Texas A&M University, the Queer Empowerment Council, is organizing a “Day of Drag” protest on March 6, and encouraging students to dress in drag after the university banned drag shows on all of its 11 campuses. The public university’s Board of Regents voted unanimously on Friday in favor of a resolution banning drag performances, potentially setting up a First Amendment fight in the Lone Star State. After considering how to respond to the resolution, the Queer Empowerment Council announced a “Day of Drag.”“We want to see as many people in their best drag outfit,” the council said. “By dressing in drag, you’re proving that drag is not disruptive or inappropriate — it’s simply self-expression. The more people who participate, the stronger our message: drag deserves its place on campus, and so do we.”The group is encouraging students to donate drag clothing to Transcend Closet, an organization that “helps trans and gender-diverse students access affirming clothing.”The university’s board of regents said that drag shows are “inconsistent with [the university’s] mission and core values, including the value of respect for others.” It also said that drag shows are “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women. “These events often involve unwelcome and objectively offensive conduct based on sex for many members of the respective communities of the universities, particularly when they involve the mockery or objectification of women,” the resolution said.Additionally, the board warned that hosting drag shows on campus could run afoul of President Trump’s executive orders meant to prevent federal funds from being used for the promotion of so-called “gender ideology.” The resolution directs the university’s chancellor to cancel any upcoming drag shows.The ban on drag performances at Texas A&M means that the popular annual event, Draggieland, which was scheduled for March 27 at the College Station campus, will have to be canceled or moved to another venue. Just six days before the Regents’ vote, Governor Abbott reappointed two members of the board of regents and appointed a third new regent as he seeks to crack down on left-wing policies on campuses across the state. In June 2023, he signed a law that bans DEI at public colleges and universities. In January 2025, he signed an executive order that directs “state agencies to eliminate any form of DEI attempting to divide Texans.”The governor has also tried to ban drag performances. In June 2023, he signed a law that on its face was designed to expand state laws meant to prevent children from being exposed to sexually explicit performances. However, it was widely viewed as an attempt to ban drag performances, which is how the governor described the law when he signed it. A federal judge struck down the law in September of that year, saying it “impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment and chills free speech.”During Draggieland, participants compete to be crowned as queen of “Draggieland.” It has previously sold out shows at the college and was labeled the program of the year in 2021. This year’s theme is “Slaying the Seven Seas — where creativity meets the open waters of imagination.”The Queer Empowerment Council, which organizes Draggieland, said it was “profoundly disheartened” by the resolution and is “committed to ensuring that our voices are heard, and that Draggieland will go on, no matter the obstacles we face.”Students have also scheduled less famous drag performances on other campuses that will have to be canceled. A&M’s Board of Regents says there are other venues off-campus where the drag shows can take place. However, some civil rights groups argue that the university cannot ban drag because of constitutional protections covering freedom of expression. In a statement, a senior attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, JT Morris, said, “Drag is protected expression. Full stop. Whether drag or Bible study, public universities cannot ban or punish students’ protected expression. Banning speech because it might offend someone else is viewpoint discrimination, the third rail of the First Amendment.”The decision to ban drag performances comes as West Texas A&M is still facing a lawsuit stemming from a 2023 decision by its president, Walter Wendler, to cancel an on-campus drag show. Mr. Wendler insisted that drag shows degrade women and was sued by students who said the ban violated their First Amendment rights. FIRE filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court in March 2024 asking that students be allowed to host drag performances on campus.“In short, Wendler imposed a viewpoint-driven prior restraint on speech — an intolerable First Amendment violation that should not have lasted a day, let alone a year,” the group said at the time.However, the high court declined to intervene to lift the ban until the case has been heard by lower courts. An LGBT strategist for the ACLU of Texas, Ash Hall, told the Texas Tribune that it is “kind of absurd” for the whole A&M university system to ban drag performances while the West Texas A&M lawsuit remains pending. The ban on drag shows is the latest move by Texas A&M to cut ties with Draggieland and other such performances. In 2022, the university ended its sponsorship of the show, and students have since raised funds on their own to continue hosting it.

Students Plan ‘Day of Drag’ To Protest Texas A&M’s Ban on Drag Shows and ‘Draggieland’

Students Plan ‘Day of Drag’ To Protest Texas A&M’s Ban on Drag Shows and ‘Draggieland’

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