The University of North Texas System is one of the latest institutions in the state to pause all drag performances on its campuses.
Friday to the presidents of each university campus saying that a 鈥減ause鈥� on drag performances would bar such performances from any state-funded facilities and that the pause was effective immediately. The Daily reported that Williams said the pause is supported by the Board of Regents to comply with state and federal laws and executive orders.
Texas public universities have been scrambling to comply with new state and federal laws, as well as executive orders. President Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February and said part of his takeover was to end family-oriented drag shows the president said targeted youth. The Texas A&M University System recently had its ban on drag temporarily blocked by a lawsuit to uphold the First Amendment rights of students.
Last Monday, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas held that an Aggie student organization, the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council, was likely to succeed in .
The court held that drag is theatrical expression protected by the First Amendment and that the university鈥檚 justifications for prohibiting the student-funded, student-organized 鈥淒raggieland鈥� performance weren鈥檛 sufficient. The show took place as planned Thursday evening.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Aggie student group earlier this month seeking to have the ban overturned on First Amendment grounds. FIRE filed a motion for an injunction that would allow the show to go on while the case made its way through the courts, and the judge agreed.
鈥淚n recent years, the commitment to free speech on campuses has been both challenging and challenged,鈥� Judge Rosenthal said in the ruling. 鈥淭here have been efforts from all sides of the political spectrum to disrupt or prevent students, faculty, and others from expressing opinions and speech that are deemed, or actually are, offensive or wrong. But the law requires the recognition and application of speech rights and guardrails that preserve and protect all our treasured First Amendment rights.鈥�
The in March that its universities cannot sponsor or host drag shows.