Identity of Speakers
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Spectrum WT
Student
Other
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Recognized student group event
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Litigation
Other
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Incident Status:
In litigation Federal District Court
In litigation Federal Court of Appeals
Appealed
- Was Speech Code incident
Summary
In March 2023, Spectrum WT, an LGBTQ+ student organization at West Texas A&M University, planned a charity drag show fundraiser in Legacy Hall to benefit suicide‑prevention efforts. On March 20, 2023, university president Walter Wendler announced that the university would not host drag shows on campus, writing that drag was “demeaning to women” and comparing it to blackface, and the event was canceled after it had already gone through the school’s event‑approval process. On March 24, 2023, the students filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas alleging that the cancellation and any future drag show ban violated their First Amendment rights, arguing that the university had barred the event because of the viewpoint and content of the expression.
On September 1, 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk denied the students’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the drag show to proceed, ruling that they had not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits at that stage of the case. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee and the sole judge in the Amarillo division where the case was filed, had previously ruled in favor of conservative plaintiffs in several nationally prominent challenges to federal policies. Spectrum WT appealed the denial to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while continuing to pursue its claims related to canceled shows planned for March 2023 and March 2024.
On March 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant emergency relief that would have required the university to allow another planned drag show to take place while the appeal was pending. On April 29, 2024, the Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on whether drag performances constituted protected expressive conduct under the First Amendment and whether the university’s actions amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination against the student group.
On August 18, 2025, a three‑judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled 2–1 that the university’s actions likely violated the First Amendment, concluding that drag performances could constitute protected expression and that Legacy Hall functioned as a public forum for student speech. The panel found that Spectrum WT had shown a likelihood of success on its claim that the ban amounted to viewpoint discrimination. On October 27, 2025, that decision was vacated when the full Fifth Circuit agreed to rehear the case en banc, scheduling oral argument for January 23, 2026.
Meanwhile, the district court case moved toward trial, and a federal bench trial was scheduled to begin on January 14, 2026. On January 20, 2026, Judge Kacsmaryk issued a ruling upholding the university’s actions, denying injunctive and declaratory relief and dismissing the case with prejudice. He concluded that the proposed drag show was not shown to convey a specific protected message in the circumstances presented, that Legacy Hall was a limited public forum subject to reasonable restrictions, and that evidence of prior Spectrum WT performances involving simulated sexual conduct, combined with the routine presence of minors on campus through dual‑enrollment programs, supported the university’s decision to bar the events.
