Earlier this week, the president of West Texas A&M University in Canyon alerted constituents that he’d chosen to capital-C Cancel a student organization’s charity drag show. The statement cited his religious belief and argued that drag shows — which have long been a staple of the queer community as a vehicle for self-expression — are misogynistic and “denigrate and demean women.”
He also compared such events to “‘blackface’ performances.”
“Women have fought valiantly, seeking equality in the voting booth, marketplace and court of public opinion,” WTAMU President Walter Wendler wrote in part. “No one should claim a right to contribute to women’s suffering via a slapstick sideshow that erodes the worth of women.”
After waging successful wars last legislative session against reproductive rights and so-called critical race theory, Texas conservatives are doubling down on targeting the state’s queer community. A slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills has recently flooded the Lone Star State’s Capitol and a growing number of states nationwide.
Now, a prominent free speech advocacy group is putting WTAMU on notice.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sent a letter on Tuesday reminding Wendler that state law and the Constitution bar the university from scrapping artistic performances that don’t align with his personal beliefs.
FIRE attorney Alex Morey further blasted the WTAMU president in a statement posted to Twitter.
"Someone bring this man some smelling salts and a copy of the Constitution,” she wrote. “Students have a well-established First Amendment right to organize campus drag shows and FIRE will be making sure Mr. Wendler promptly sashays out of their way."
Wendler’s original email even acknowledged that “the law of the land appears to require” that WTAMU let the students’ drag show take place. Well, yeah.FIRE's Alex Morey: "Someone bring this man some smelling salts and a copy of the Constitution. Students have a well-established First Amendment right to organize campus drag shows and FIRE will be making sure Mr. Wendler promptly sashays out of their way. 💃"
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) March 21, 2023
FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh told the Observer that Wendler’s reasoning for canceling is “legally unsound and completely inconsistent with the First Amendment obligations of the president of a public university.” He’s entitled to his personal views and can even criticize drag shows, but what he can’t do is impose those views to limit what students can express, Steinbaugh said.
Steinbaugh also noted that the “ebb and flow of censorship” comes from the right and the left alike.
“It’s interesting that here you have a college president who hails from a conservative perspective adopting some of the rhetoric that you'd see from the left to justify censorship in the past,” he said. “And it’s indicative that free expression is something that belongs to everyone, and the arguments that get … summoned up to suppress speech, you hear them from all sides.”
The Observer emailed Wendler requesting comment but did not receive a response.
“Incidents like this, they really do harm people on a mental level.” – Jennifer Cochran, Smile Big Texas
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One LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization that’s standing in solidarity with the WTAMU students is Amarillo-based Smile Big Texas. The organization's press representative, Jennifer Cochran, is a WTAMU alumna. She noted that Wendler’s message about the drag show was disturbing and upsetting to many in the community.
Still, Cochran said, it’s something that isn’t completely out of the norm for the area’s LGBTQ+ people.
“We consistently come up against these barriers like this when we want to have events,” they said, noting that Amarillo's mayor had previously expressed concerns over a local Christmas-themed drag show last year. “We're used to having to fight for any little thing that we get here.”
Smile Big Texas is demanding that Wendler apologize, particularly given his letter’s misrepresentation of drag, in addition to the restoration of the event in question.
Cochran questions whether Wendler’s viewpoint represents the views of the rest of WTAMU’s administration about the gay community. She also wonders: Is that the message that the university wants to send to the area's youth?
Young LGBTQ+ Texans have reported struggling with mental health in recent months.
The Trevor Project, an organization that aims to prevent suicide among queer youth, released a 2022 survey that found 47% of the state’s LGBTQ+ young people had “seriously considered suicide in the past year,” with 16% reporting that they'd attempted it.
More than 7 in 10 of the survey's respondents had also experienced symptoms of anxiety, while nearly 60% said the same for depression.
Gay and trans people should be able to enjoy their lives instead of living in fear, Cochran said. She calls on allies to come out and show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
“Incidents like this, they really do harm people on a mental level, and we don't want anybody suffering in silence here,” Cochran added. “We want them to know that we're here, we're queer, we're not going anywhere. … And we will be here to help the youth and to guide them along through this journey.”
