Texas A&M’s Drag Ban Shows the Threat to Campus Free Speech Is Bipartisan
This week a federal judge stepped in to save a student-sponsored drag show at Texas A&M University. The need for that intervention shows that efforts to control on-campus speech, long decried by conservatives who complained of censorship by intolerant progressives, are a bipartisan phenomenon.
Men have been dressing as women in theatrical performances for millennia—a history that includes ancient Greek dramas, 16th century productions of Shakespeare’s plays, and popular films such as Hairspray, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, and White Chicks. But the continuation of that tradition was too much for the Texas A&M Board of Regents, which last month banned “drag shows that involve biological males dressing as women” from “special event venues.”
That decree put the kibosh to Draggieland, an annual event sponsored by the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council. The organization had already reserved the Rudder Theatre at the university’s College Station campus and sold tickets for the show, which was scheduled for March 27.
The theater previously had been available for a wide variety of events, including comedies, musicals, ballet, political speeches, and a fraternity-sponsored beauty pageant. Although the theater had never rejected a reservation request, the regents unanimously decided that Draggieland was beyond the pale because it was “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women,” thereby violating federal law and the university’s “anti-discrimination policy.”
The regents also cited President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order aimed at “defending women
Article from Reason.com
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