LGBTQ student group asks for Supreme Court’s help to put on drag show at Texas university

WASHINGTON (CN) — An LGBTQ student group asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday for emergency intervention so it can conduct an annual charity drag show against the wishes of the university’s Christian president. 

Two lower courts denied Spectrum WT’s request to block West Texas A&M University’s ban on the performance. The group urged the justices to act where the lower courts had not, arguing the court had a responsibility to uphold free speech. 

“If courts abdicate their responsibility to provide oversight when university officials overstep constitutional bounds, it will hollow out this court’s well-settled rule that university presidents cannot arbitrarily parcel out First Amendment rights only to those groups of which they approve,” JT Morris, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, wrote in the group’s emergency application. 

Spectrum WT is a recognized student organization at West Texas A&M University that puts on events geared toward the LGBTQ community. Last year, the group wanted to host a drag show to raise money for the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. 

The show was planned with the help of university staff and intended for audiences over 13 years old. Spectrum WT said the show would be anything but risqué, avoiding profane music and other “lewd” conduct. Minors were allowed to attend only if accompanied by a parent. 

Shortly before the event, however, the university's president Walter Wendler banned the event, claiming it discriminated against women. Wendler emailed the campus community saying that the university would not host the event because drag shows stereotype women in a derisive, divisive and demoralizing manner, so holding one could never be harmless.

Wendler stipulated that he would not promote the diminishment of any group, “even when the law of the land appears to require it."

Spectrum WT sued but was forced to move its 2023 show off campus. The group amended its complaint to fight to host the 2024 show at the university as originally planned. 

The lower court found the drag show wasn’t inherently expressive so it was not protected by the First Amendment. The Fifth Circuit denied an attempt to expedite the case, setting oral arguments after the 2024 show.  

Spectrum WT asked the justices to grant an injunction on the lower court’s order by March 22 so the group could hold its drag show at the university. The student group said the justices have the opportunity to provide an example for universities across the nation implementing viewpoint discrimination. 

“Public university and college officials nationwide from across the political spectrum are appointing themselves censors-in-chief, separating what they consider ‘good’ from ‘bad’ expression on their campuses,” Morris wrote. 

The group said Wendler’s censorship was based on nothing more than his personal opinion. 

“In this unique circumstance, only this court can halt an ongoing violation of two of the most fundamental First Amendment protections: the bars against prior restraint and viewpoint-based censorship,” Morris wrote. 

The court requested a response to the application by March 13. 

Follow @KelseyReichmann

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