Federal judge blocks Texas A&M from banning 'Draggieland' drag show

HOUSTON (CN) — The “Draggieland” drag show run by the Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council will continue on campus as planned on March 27, a federal judge said Monday.

Senior U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal issued the order, granting a preliminary injunction to the council and emphatically rejecting the university’s use of a January 20 executive order from President Donald Trump to justify the ban.

The George H.W. Bush appointee in the Southern District of Texas noted that the student group had sponsored the “Draggieland” show for five years without issue, and the board only moved to ban the show following the executive order — titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

“This executive order cannot override First Amendment protections,” Rosenthal wrote.

And on the matter of the First Amendment, Rosenthal also found that the university’s position ignored a fundamental aspect of the First Amendment and the long history of legal findings for it.

“The fact that the board justifies its ban on drag shows by saying it aligns with the rejection of a certain ideology belies the board’s contrary position that the ban is viewpoint neutral,” Rosenthal said. “The board’s stated justification is the kind of viewpoint discrimination proscribed by the [Supreme] Court in Rosenberger : a restriction that ‘targets not subject matter, but particular views taken by speakers on a subject.’”

But if that was not sufficient, Rosenthal provided yet another reason under First Amendment precedent that the ban could not be allowed: strict scrutiny.

Quoting a 2011 Supreme Court case and a 2018 case from the Fifth Circuit, Rosenthal stated that “When strict scrutiny is applicable, the government ‘must specifically identify an actual problem in need of solving,’ and the ‘curtailment of [the constitutional right] must be actually necessary to the solution. The court finds that on the present record, the board has failed to meet this standard.“

In addressing the board’s argument that the content of the Draggieland show would be offensive, Rosenthal provided yet another short rejection.

“It is a ticketed event; only those who want to attend do so. Anyone who finds the performance or performers offensive has a simple remedy: don’t go," she said.

Rosenthal also distinguished this case from the West Texas A&M president’s previous ban of a campus drag show in 2023. Unlike the Draggieland show, the charity event sponsored by the student group in West Texas expected to have children in the audience.

The Texas legislature passed its own drag ban in 2023, with more bills like it proposed in the 2025 session. Another federal judge in Texas blocked that 2023 law as unconstitutional the same year, but the Fifth Circuit upheld the West Texas A&M drag show ban and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the legal organization representing the Queer Empowerment Council, praised the decision in a press release Monday morning.

“Today is a resounding victory for the First Amendment at public universities in Texas,” said FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh, who argued the case at the federal court. “The court reaffirmed that state university officials cannot block student expression they claim is offensive. State officials should stop trying to score political points at the expense of students’ First Amendment rights.”

The Queer Empowerment Council also said in the release, “We’re overjoyed with today’s decision. This is another display of the resilience of queer joy, as that is an unstoppable force despite those that wish to see it destroyed. While this fight isn’t over, we are going to appreciate the joy we get to bring by putting on the best show that we can do.”

The student group first sued Texas A&M and members of its Board of Regents March 5 after the university banned the show Feb. 28, after tickets had already been sold.

The Texas A&M Board of Regents has not yet responded to request for comment at this time.