The president of the University of Texas has canceled a student drag show, calling it “divisive” and misogynistic. First Amendment supporters disagree



CNN

A student drag show aimed at raising money for the LGBT community was canceled Monday by the president of West Texas A&M University, who called such shows “taunting, divisive, and demoralizing misogyny,” prompting backlash from students and free speech advocates. .

In an email to the school community, university president Walter W. Wendler said that drag shows “discriminate against womanhood.” to black face and said that “there is no such thing” as a harmless drag show.

“A harmless drag show? Impossible. I am not going to put up with the reduction of any group through defiant gestures towards another group for any reason, even when required by the law of the country,” the email reads.

Walter W. Wendler in an undated photograph posted on the school's website.

The show’s earnings were linked to support Trevor Project, LGBTQ Youth Suicide Prevention Organization.

The performance was scheduled for March 31st.

A spokesman for the university declined to comment further via the president’s email, citing a pending lawsuit.

Vendler’s decision and remarks drew backlash from both students and advocates, who said the move was wrong and unconstitutional.

A Petition on Change.org said the university’s student body is “calling for the restoration” of the campus performance and called its cancellation “an indirect attack on WTAMU’s LGBT+ communities, feminists, and student body activists.”

The petition stated that the president’s comparison of blackface and drag performance was “a gross and disgusting comparison of two very different themes” and “a grossly misrepresented and misrepresentation of drag as a culture and performance art form.”

In a letter to Vendler, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech and religious freedom group in academia, wrote that it was “gravely concerned” by his decision and asked him to restore the performance.

“The First Amendment and Texas law protect student expression from administrative censorship,” FIRE said in a statement. later statement.

“As a person, Wendler can be critical of this particular drag show or the existence of a drag show in a broader sense. No reasonable person would argue that the administration of a public university personally endorses the views expressed at every event organized by every student group on campus. But as a statesman, President Wendler cannot use public authority to impose his views on the WTAMU community,” the statement said.

“WTAMU has to let the show go on – and we will continue to make sure that happens,” he added.

PEN America, Literary and Free Speech Organization, called cancellation “a disgusting violation of the right of students to freedom of speech.”

“Drag shows should be welcome on campus; speeches that the university president does not like should not be censored,” Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America’s senior manager of free speech and education, said in a statement.

As transgender issues and drag culture become more mainstream, a plethora of bills—mostly in Republican-led states—have been aimed at restrict or ban drag show performances.

LGBTQ advocates told CNN that these bills are of heightened concern to the community, are discriminatory and could violate First Amendment laws.

Earlier in March Tennessee became the first state this year limit public appearances of drag shows. His law will come into force on July 1.

Texas House Bill introduced this year also seeks to regulate public places where drag performances are held.

At least nine other states are also considering anti-drag legislation.