Greg Abbott Issues Blistering Response to Drag Show Ban Controversy

Greg Abbott has hailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject a request by a local student group to host a drag show at a Texas university, saying that drag shows are “not welcome” in education institutes in the Southern state.

“Drag shows are not welcome at Texas universities,” the Republican governor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday. “Our focus is to educate the next generation, not indoctrinate them.”

In March 2023, LGBTQ+ student group Spectrum WT sued officials at West Texas A&M University after the president Walter Wendler banned a drag show planned for later that month. The group said the ban was in violation of the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech. Newsweek contacted Abbott’s press office and Spectrum for comment by email on Saturday.

In September 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued an interim ruling denying the Spectrum WT’s request for a preliminary injunction stopping Wendler from banning future drag shows. Kacsmaryk said it was “not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive” and thus should be covered by the First Amendment.

Following his ruling, Spectrum WT appealed to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which scheduled hearings on the case for April 2024. Seeking a faster solution, the student group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the ban on drag shows until a decision is made by the courts.

However, on Friday, the U.S. high court issued a one-sentence order denying Spectrum WT’s request. “The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the order reads. The court’s decision was not explained.

The ruling doesn’t mean that the student group won’t be able to win their fight against Wendler’s ban and host drag shows at the Texas university, as intended. But it means that no drag show will be held at the venue at least until the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments in the case in April.

The legal drama unfolding around the Texas Panhandle university speaks of a bigger issue involving Republican-led states across the country; conservative and hardline GOP lawmakers and officials have launched something of an anti-drag crusade in recent years.

Drag shows—a decades-old form of entertainment where performers impersonate men and women exaggerating gender signifiers—have come under the spotlight in the past few years as Republicans have tried to criminalize and restrict them, saying they are doing so in the interest of children’s well-being.

In March 2023, Tennessee officially became the first state to ban drag shows in public spaces that could be accessed by a minor, a law signed into effect by Republican Governor Bill Lee. Other GOP-led states such as Arizona and Texas followed with the proposal of similar bills.

Many Republicans say that drag shows expose children to sexual themes that are inappropriate for their age—even when these events involve simply a drag performer reading a book, as in Drag Queen Story Hour. The backlash against drag shows has been going hand in hand with an attack against the transgender community by conservatives across the state.