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On Monday, April 29th 2024, FIRE argued before a federal appeals court on behalf of our clients in Spectrum WT v. Wendler to deliver a clear message that a public university president cannot ban student drag performances simply because he finds them offensive to women.
On March 20, 2023, Walter Wendler, the president of West Texas A&M University, abruptly canceled a charity drag show that LGBTQ student group Spectrum WT was planning to hold at the public university.
In an email to the university, Wendler denounced drag shows as “artistic expression” intended to “denigrate and demean women.” Wendler said he would “not appear to condone” such speech, “even when the law of the land appears to require it.”
A year later, Wendler enforced his campus drag show ban, canceling Spectrum WT’s annual campus drag show again.
Wendler’s ongoing censorship violates the First Amendment. Drag shows are forms of expression that gov’t officials - like public university admin - can’t suppress just because they find them offensive.
FIRE argued before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that whether it’s a drag show, a political debate, or a Bible study, public university officials cannot silence protected expression based on their personal views.
Links:
www.thefire.org/news/lawsuit-...
www.thefire.org/news/west-tex...
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