In late February, The Texas A&M Board of Regents voted to end drag shows on all system campuses.
A few weeks later, the University of Texas System said its campuses were banned from sponsoring drag shows or hosting them.
In March, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Texas A&M University System from enforcing its ban on such shows.
This week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the federal judge's ruling.
In the resolution banning drag shows, the Board cited President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used to promote gender ideology and Governor Jim Abbott’s letter directing state agencies to comply with that executive order. It also noted that drag events involving “sexualized, vulgar or lewd conduct” are inconsistent with the mission and core values of the universities.
Paxton agreed.
“Our colleges and universities exist to help students learn and equip them as they take their next steps in life. They are not, and never have been, a place for taxpayer-funded drag shows where men pretending to be women engage in obscene, offensive, and degrading behavior,” he said. “Texans’ tax dollars should not fund or be used for vulgar assaults on our values.”
Last week, as reported by The North Texas Daily, University of North Texas system chancellor Michael Williams sent a directive saying drag shows were banned from state funded facilities.
Pleased with Paxton
"We're very happy that our attorney general is taking action against these drag queen shows that are happening on university campuses. At the very least, it's definitely a waste of taxpayer money that these public universities are having these very ideological, indoctrinating-type shows. It's more about the ideology than it is about actual education,” Mary Elizabeth Castle, of Texas Values, told AFN.
She said there was state legislation in 2023 that banned drag shows in front of children, but that has been tied up in the courts.
"I think the judge that they went to for the A&M situation definitely had a bent, an ideological bent that they felt like would be favorable to that. You might expect the same thing for the University of Texas. Not sure."
