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John Carroll University

From September 2019 to September 2019
John Carroll University (Private college or university)
University Heights, OH, United States

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Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    Recognized student group event
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Neither
  • Incident Responses:
    Other
  • Incident Status:
    No litigation
  • Incident Protested
  • Did not involve Speech Codes

Summary

On September 8, 2019, John Carroll University’s administration cancelled a student-organized annual drag show because the show might create “divisiveness” on campus. The show was organized by the Student Union Programming Board and LGBTQA+ Allies Club. University president Dr. Michael Johnson wrote in a statement that “John Carroll unambiguously supports our LGBTQIA+ community of students, faculty and staff. How best to do so is the question at hand. In my judgment, the drag show is not the best way to proceed.” The cancellation of the drag show occurred a year after the student newspaper ran an op-ed denouncing the drag show as a “flagrant celebration of sexual perversity.”