University of South Carolina Sponsors Drag Show Using Tax Dollars

My brother is being forced to pay for a drag queen performance.

At the University of South Carolina Beaufort campus, my brother (Jesse speaking here), freshman Joshua Castrinos, was leaving his Rhetoric and Composition class when he noticed a flyer on the bulletin board for a Drag Queen Bingo Show:

Photo: Joshua Castrinos

The show is being sponsored and paid for by USCB Student Life and is listed on the Student Life Calendar.

“I was even more shocked when I saw the ‘USCB Student Life’ emblem in the top right-hand corner,” Castrinos said. “I’m disappointed that the school would spend its time and money on an agenda that denies basic biology instead of actually helping students.”

Castrinos was also forced to listen to lectures on “white supremacy” and “unconscious biases” during freshman orientation.

The lectures were given by the Campus Student Life Coordinator (who has publicly admitted that her favorite event is the campus drag show).

According to Castrinos, she instructed the students to not talk about the lectures outside of class because she wants to maintain “trust” with the students. In fact, the University of South Carolina has a history of requiring students to participate in DEI trainings and earn passing scores on quizzes following the training to register for classes.

For the upcoming academic year, USCB has requested approximately $47 million in taxpayer money from South Carolina taxpayers and $20 million from Beaufort County taxpayers.

Additionally, they have requested $1.5 million from federal taxpayers to account for rising “mandatory costs” such as “salary increases,” “travel” costs, and “retirement” benefits for employees. And that does not include all the spending from federal student aid that contributes to USCB’s tuition revenue.

USCB has continued to receive millions of dollars from taxpayers, even as they use resources for drag queen shows.

Of course, USCB isn’t the only school hosting such nonsense. The University of Delaware, Ithaca College, Salisbury University, Drexel University, and Rowan University all have either sponsored a drag queen show within the past year or are scheduled to sponsor one within the next few months on their student life calendars.

All these colleges accept federal funding for student aid.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14168. The order says that federal funds “shall not be used to promote gender ideology,” which means that any agency or institution that uses federal funds cannot promote a “fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex.”

This executive order speaks directly to radical activities such as drag shows. Following the order, some colleges began canceling these shows on campus in order to comply. Yet, some universities are continuing to defy this order, the most notorious is perhaps Harvard. However, these other institutions have not received as much attention, especially in red states such as South Carolina.

The American taxpayer deserves better. Federal funds are meant for education, not voyeurism.

Federal officials should investigate the reports of drag shows using federal taxpayer money on campuses. Additionally, South Carolina lawmakers should consider HB3381, The Defense of Children’s Innocence Act. This proposal prohibits schools that accept state taxpayer funds from sponsoring drag activities.

Universities ought to produce virtuous citizens, but USCB is choosing to indoctrinate students with DEI propaganda and radical gender ideology.

South Carolina policymakers must stop universities from using student and taxpayer resources for radical programming that harms students and restore trust with families.

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