Texas Senate Advances Bills Aimed at Restricting Children’s Access to Drag Shows

The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature's third special session in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20, 2021. Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

The Texas Senate on April 4 granted preliminary approval to two bills aimed at limiting children’s exposure to drag events or other sexual performances across the state.

Senate Bill 12 (pdf), introduced by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican, would restrict certain “sexually oriented performances” from taking place on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise, or in the presence of a child and would make those who violate the law liable to pay a $10,000 fine.

Performers who commit an offense under the law also face a jail sentence of up to a year.

Specifically, the bill states that individuals who control the premises of a commercial enterprise may not allow a sexually oriented performance to be presented in the presence of anyone under the age of 18.

Under the bill, “sexually oriented performance” is defined as a visual performance in which the entertainer is nude, is a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male and is wearing “clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience” and appeals to the “prurient interest in sex.”

Such performances would also be criminalized if they meet several other definitions for “sexual conduct,” regardless of the performer’s dress or gender presentation, including actual or simulated sexual acts or actual contact or simulated contact occurring between one person and the “buttocks, breast, or any part of the genitals of another person” among others.

Libraries Hosting Drag Performers

The Texas Senate voted 21–10 to approve the measure, which if passed, would go into effect in September this year.

Lawmakers also voted to grant approval to Senate Bill 1601, which was also introduced by Hughes. Under that bill, municipal libraries in the state would be banned from receiving state funds if they host an event at which a “man presenting as a woman or a woman presenting as a man reads a book or a story to a minor for entertainment and the person being dressed as the opposite gender is a primary component of the entertainment.”

State funds for the municipal library would be denied for the fiscal year following the year in which they hosted such an event, according to the bill.

The Senate voted preliminarily 20–9 to approve that measure. Both of the bills require another vote in the Senate before they can be sent to the House.

Republican lawmakers in the state have argued that the bills are needed to protect children from sexually explicit performances.

Hughes told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that the bills are about “what children should be exposed to, something that I believe, I hope, we’ll have common ground on.” He also cited several examples in which there has been “explicit touching” between children and drag show performers.

Tennessee Drag Show Bill on Hold

However, LGBTQ advocates and drag performers claim that not all drag performances are inherently sexual in nature.

“We just need to understand that drag is not inherently sexual, and queer expression is not inherently sexual,” Austin-based drag performer Brigitte Bandit told The Texas Tribune in March.

The approval of the latest bills came after the Texas Senate on Tuesday granted final approval to a separate bill banning certain procedures and treatments for gender-transitioning minors.

That bill, filed by state Sen. Donna Campbell, a Republican, bans medical professionals from providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical interventions to children under 18 for the purpose of helping a child transition from their biological sex.

However, exceptions are made in the bill in certain cases, such as when the child is experiencing precocious puberty or if the minor is born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.

That legislation now heads to the Texas House of Representatives for debate.

Lawmakers in Tennessee passed and signed a law earlier this year that forbids drag shows from being held while minors are present, but a federal judge last week imposed a temporary restraining order blocking the law from taking effect on its scheduled date of April 1. Further hearings regarding the case are set to be scheduled soon.