Texas students seek court intervention for drag show
WASHINGTON – Students at a university in the Texas Panhandle have asked the Supreme Court to rule that they have a First Amendment right to hold a charity drag show, an emergency request they hope will let them host the show this month.
It’s another side of the roiling debate over campus speech that has included challenges from the right about whether efforts to confront bias on campus intimidate students who want to speak their mind.
In this challenge from the left, students have been fighting with officials at West Texas A& M University since the president canceled last year’s planned on-campus drag show.
Spectrum WT, a student organization, wants to hold the drag show to raise money for The Trevor Project, which focuses on preventing suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.
University President Walter Wendler has said drag shows 'stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood.'
The students argue that the 'judicial safety net broke down' because the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is moving too slowly on their challenge to the university’s decision and on a request to put that decision on hold while it’s being litigated.
'This would be bad enough if the problem were confined to having the president of one small public university in the Texas Panhandle defy what he knows to be the First Amendment’s command.
But it isn’t,' the students’ lawyers told the Supreme Court.
'Public university and college officials nationwide from across the political spectrum are appointing themselves censors-in-chief, separating what they consider ‘good’ from ‘bad’ expression on their campuses.'
Wendler said it is not possible to put on a drag show without denigrating and demeaning women.
'I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it,' he wrote.
'Supporting The Trevor Project is a good idea. My recommendation is to skip the show and send the dough.'
The Supreme Court asked the university to respond to the students’ request by Wednesday.
Drag shows have joined the front line of America’s culture wars in recent years, with Republican lawmakers in multiple states trying to restrict them.
They have not always won in court.
A federal judge last year said a Texas law seeking to limit drag performances in the state is unconstitutional.
In November, the Supreme Court denied a request by Florida officials to let the state enforce a law restricting drag shows.
But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a statement partly joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, stressed that the court was not dealing with First Amendment questions but rather procedural problems with how the lower courts handled the case.
From the other side, conservatives have complained about what they call 'speech police' policies aimed at confronting bias on campus, including sexist jokes or racist name-calling.
On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal challenging a 'bias-response team' at Virginia Tech because the school had disbanded the team.
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Why I Wont Condemn Kathy Griffin Cnorris
Why I Wont Condemn Kathy Griffin Cnorris
Why I Wont Condemn Kathy Griffin Cnorris. Kathy griffin’s decision to pose with an effigy of donald trump is indefensible. “leftists, tell me again about trump’s violent language ushering.
11 cartoons that show America’s complicated feelings about Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey from http://www.philly.com
As i previously stated, griffin often seems to substitute an increasingly obvious lack…
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Judge, Jury and Executioner - The once-prestigious New York Times has recently plumbed a new low, becoming judge, jury and executioner in the affairs of its political enemies by publishing inflammatory Opinion pieces and passing them off as factual, despite not having a shred of evidence to back them up.
Pete Kreiner - Australia
( FYI NY Times tweeted describing Kavanaugh’s behavior as 'harmless fun' )
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This cartoon was drawn by Rocko’s Modern Life creator Joe Murray right after Trump won the election. In light of this fiasco with Brett Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court, this “fucking” metaphor feels particularly appropriate right now.
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