Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will defend Texas A&M in court after it was sued over a decision to ban drag performances on its campuses, The Daily Wire learned Friday.
The Board of Regents for Texas A&M was sued earlier this month by a student group called the Queer Empowerment Council, which alleged that the board’s February decision to no longer sanction drag shows on campus is a violation of the First Amendment. Paxton said Friday that the publicly-funded university system had no obligation to host “obscene” drag shows, and that he would be representing the board.
“Our colleges and universities exist to help students learn and equip them as they take their next steps in life,” Paxton told The Daily Wire. “They are not, and have never been, a place for taxpayer-funded drag shows where men pretending to be women engage in obscene, offensive, and degrading behavior.”
“Texans’ tax dollars should not fund or be used for vulgar assaults on our values, which is why I’m defending the Board’s ban on these shows against frivolous lawsuits launched by left-wing radicals,” he added.
In a February 28 resolution, the board said that it found that drag shows were “inconsistent” with the mission of the university system as they “involve sexualized, vulgar or lewd conduct” and “involve conduct that demeans women.”
The board said that it believed that drag shows created a hostile environment for women in violation of Title IX in university public spaces.
The resolution also cited an executive order from President Donald Trump that directs federal funding to be cut from entities that promote gender ideology and a letter from Governor Greg Abbott directing state agencies to comply with the executive order.
The board wrote that “both the System and the Universities receive significant federal funding, the use of facilities at the Universities for Drag Show Events may be considered promotion of gender ideology in violation of the Executive Order and the Governor’s directive.”
In response to the decision, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the student-led Queer Empower Group. That group alleged that the board was violating the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination.
The group was particularly upset that a drag festival called “Draggieland,” will no longer be allowed to be hosted at a campus venue.
