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   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   A drag show scheduled for this week at Texas A&M University can go on as   
   scheduled despite a Board of Regents ban on such performances, a federal   
   judge ruled Monday.   
      
   The ruling from Houston-based U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal blocked a   
   university ban on drag performances on free speech grounds.   
      
   “To ban the performance from taking place on campus because it offends   
   some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment   
   prohibits,” Rosenthal, who was nominated to the bench by the late   
   President George H.W. Bush, said in her opinion.   
      
   The ruling blocks the ban while the broader legal case over it moves   
   forward. The decision echoes others in recent years from the U.S. Supreme   
   Court, which refused to let Florida enforce a statewide ban, and district   
   courts in a Montana, Tennessee and Texas.   
      
   Texas A&M has become a flashpoint in the most recent chapter of the legal   
   battle.   
      
   Two years ago, the president of West Texas A&M in Canyon, said a drag show   
   scheduled for that campus could not move ahead. In response to a legal   
   challenge, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said the university could   
   block the show, finding it contained “sexualized content” and could be   
   more regulated than other forms of speech.   
      
   The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to take the case when the   
   student group behind it appealed.   
      
   This time around, the backdrop is different. The Board of Regents passed a   
   policy banning drag shows across the university system on Feb. 28, after   
   tickets had already been sold to the “Draggieland” show on the flagship   
   campus in College Station. The show has been an annual event there since   
   2020.   
      
      
   In the first two years, the university supported it financially. But in   
   recent years, the student group Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council has   
   been responsible for all the funding.   
      
   The university argued that allowing the show could jeopardize federal   
   funding for the university in light of President Donald Trump’s executive   
   order barring federal money to support what he calls “ gender ideology.”   
   It noted how funds were cut off from Columbia University.   
      
   The judge decided that allowing the event does not imply that the   
   university endorses it. By allowing it, she said, the university could   
   comply with the “constitutional obligation to allow different messages and   
   viewpoints, including those viewed as offensive to some, to be expressed   
   at a university that is committed to critical thought about a wide range   
   of conflicting and divergent viewpoints and ideologies.”   
      
   A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for   
   comment.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/texas-university-am-drag-show-ban-judge-   
   bf4ccaaf112b41602b6a5c0a6f011bc5   
      
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