In a letter sent last week to University of North Texas President Harrison Keller, officials from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas urged the university to end a “pause” on drag performances announced on March 27. The University of North Texas’ adoption of a ban on drag performances came shortly after the Texas A&M system and the University of Texas system announced similar measures.
At least two student groups at UNT, the GLAD Queer Alliance and Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, were forced to cancel or relocate planned drag shows in the spring semester after UNT’s pause, which works effectively as a ban, went into effect.
At the time, the chancellor of the University of North Texas system, Michael Williams, wrote that the pause was being put into place because of the university’s “responsibility to comply with all applicable federal and state laws and executive orders.” In a January executive order, President Donald Trump wrote that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,” which is defined as “an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity.”
“We will respectfully wait on a definitive ruling on litigation against other Texas universities from our federal courts to provide necessary guidance,” Williams said in March.
In the letter sent to UNT leaders on Aug. 14, the ACLU and FIRE argue that those rulings have already been made.
Last spring, the University of North Texas ordered an indefinite, system-wide “pause” on all drag performances over the perceived “ideology” of drag shows.
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) August 14, 2025
But this open-ended pause is just a ban in disguise. FIRE and @ACLUTx urge UNT to lift this restraint on campus expression. pic.twitter.com/RVXUA2p8Ha
On March 24, three days before North Texas’ drag “pause” was put into place, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas stopped the Texas A&M board from blocking drag performances on campuses, stating that drag performance is a form of protected expression under the First Amendment, as proven by the board’s assertion “that the performance promotes an ideology.”
Rosenthal added that Trump’s federal directive was too vague to be considered applicable to drag performances.
“The court held that Texas A&M’s drag ban likely amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by suppressing expression based on the subjective judgments of campus officials,” the letter states. “Just as the Texas A&M drag performance ban violates the Constitution, so does the UNT ‘pause’ on drag shows. … In any event, public universities must not subvert their constitutional obligations to the president’s wishes.”
The letter also raises concerns about UNT’s perceived overcompliance with directives that work to undo diversity, equity and inclusion measures. In 2023, the university eliminated its DEI department, and in 2024, faculty resource groups such as the “Women and Gender Equity Network” were dissolved.
The university also faced criticism when it changed the names of several courses to omit words such as “class, equity and race.”
"The restrictions on the drag performances at UNT are a message that UNT itself will not advocate for [its] students," president of GLAD, Ty'Rianna Simpson, wrote in an email to the Observer last spring. "UNT has been overcompliant to anything [regarding] DEI, and the restrictions on the drag performances tell us that they inherently don’t care to uphold our free speech or freedom of expression."
The letter calls for UNT to rescind the ban on campus drag performances immediately. A University of North Texas spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
