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On March 28, 2025, UNT System Chancellor Michael Williams issued a system-wide directive announcing an immediate “pause” on drag performances on campus and at state-owned theaters and facilities historically open to student groups. Williams claimed the move was necessary because the university had to balance its responsibility to obey state and federal law and executive orders, including those that prohibit promoting certain views on “,” with the university’s “duty to carry out [its] core missions of teaching, learning and research.” 

On Aug. 14, 2025, FIREand ACLU-TX wrote UNT President Harrison Keller explaining that the drag “pause” is an impermissible viewpoint-discriminatory ban and prior restraint by another name. We further explained that such a sweeping restriction on protected expression runs afoul of the Constitution, given that a similar drag ban at Texas A&M University was recently struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. We urged UNT to immediately lift the “pause” on drag performances to honor its obligations under the First Amendment and its own guarantees of free expression.