In a ruling that should outrage every parent, taxpayer, and conservative voter in Texas, a federal judge has stomped all over the authority of the Texas A&M University Board of Regents—greenlighting a sexually charged, ideologically driven drag show to proceed on campus despite a commonsense ban.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, appointed by George H. W. Bush, issued a sweeping preliminary injunction Monday that forces Texas A&M to allow the so-called “Draggieland” event—a campus drag show hosted by the “Queer Empowerment Council” (QEC)—to proceed in the Rudder Theatre.
WATCH:
This, despite the fact that the Board of Regents passed a resolution explicitly banning such shows in taxpayer-funded venues.
The regents, supported by Governor Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump’s recent executive order defending biological reality in federal policy, acted responsibly to protect female students and uphold the mission of higher education.
Their resolution stated the obvious: drag shows involving men dressed in exaggerated female garb and prosthetics often mock women, promote vulgarity, and push fringe gender ideology on young minds.
But Judge Rosenthal threw all that out—arguing instead that drag performances are protected “expressive conduct” and that banning them is “viewpoint discrimination.”
Here’s what the judge said, straight from the ruling reviewed by The Gateway Pundit: “Draggieland is a performance that ‘includes conversations between the performer and host about what drag means to the performers’… The theatrical performance and the explicit discussion of the intended message are both protected under the First Amendment.”
The court went further, asserting, “The performance is clearly intended to convey ‘political, social, and cultural messages,’” and dismissed the Board’s argument that drag shows aren’t inherently expressive, calling it contradictory to their claim that the shows promote an ideology.
“The court noted that “[d]rag shows express a litany of emotions and purposes, from humor and pure entertainment to social commentary on gender roles.”Considering the artistic value of drag shows, the court concluded that “[there is no doubt that at the bare minimum these performances are meant to be a form of art that is meant to entertain,” which alone “warranted] some level of First Amendment protection.” The court emphasized that “drag shows … are performances that express conduct with no need for extra explanation. … [They] express either pure entertainment, or, like most types of expressive art, an underlying deeper message. (Such as music, theater, and poetry).”
The court even had the gall to suggest that drag shows are akin to Shakespeare or Broadway theatre, ignoring the overtly sexual nature of modern drag and its growing presence in inappropriate venues like public libraries and now, college campuses.
“Performances by men dressed as women are nothing new. Men have been dressing as women in theater and film for centuries. It is well-established among scholars of Shakespeare’s literary works that, when his plays were written and performed, female characters were played by young men dressed in women’s attire,” Rosenthal wrote.
According to Rosenthal, President Trump’s Executive Order cannot supersede First Amendment protections.
“The Board points to the president’s executive order stating that “[f]ederal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” The executive order defines gender ideology, in part, “as [the] ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa.” This executive order cannot override First Amendment protections.”
Read the ruling here.
The post Federal Judge Blocks Texas A&M’s Drag Show Ban, Claims Trump’s Executive Order Can’t “Override” Drag Performances’ First Amendment Rights appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.