#dragphobia

H.L. Comeriato at The Buckeye Flame, via The Advocate:

Members of the Ohio House voted Wednesday to advance the state’s ban on public drag and gender performance. Ohio House Bill (HB) 249 – which received three committee hearings rife with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender disinformation – will now head to the Senate. The bill passed the House by a vote of 63-30, largely along party lines: Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) broke ranks to vote against the bill. If passed, “The Enact the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act” would ban drag and gender performances outside of “adult cabaret” venues or in any public venue where a minor may be present. Public performances that meet the definition of obscenity are already banned under Ohio law.

Anti-LGBTQ+ language in the bill would disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ performers, heavily restricting “performers or entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers …” Additionally, a separate section of the bill that substitutes the phrase “private part” for “private area” would also help criminalize trans and gender non-conforming people who use gendered public facilities during daily life.

Targeting transgender Ohioans

HB 249’s primary sponsor – conservative Christian Rep. Josh Williams (R-Oregon) – said the bill would stop transgender Ohioans from using gendered public facilities like locker rooms to change their clothing. Williams repeatedly referenced an anti-transgender incident that occurred at a YMCA in Xenia, Ohio, in which a transgender person was sued after she attempted to change her clothing in a gendered communal locker room. The incident was not part of a drag or gender performance. Ultimately, a judge found the transgender person not guilty of public indecency. However, both Williams and David Mahan – policy executive director for Columbus-based anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) – said the bill would prevent judges from ruling that way in future cases. The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Angie King (R-Celina), discussed the lawsuit at length ahead of the full House vote. Brown Piccolantonio told lawmakers the removal of the language would “[clarify] that the bill is not meant to target anyone with an appearance that does not match their sex assigned at birth by simply removing the language about dressing in a manner inconsistent with ‘biological sex.’”

In 2023, lawmakers in Arkansas gutted a similar drag ban bill, heavily amending it to exclude language targeting performers who exhibit gender identities different from the sex assigned to them at birth “using clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by members of and are meant to exaggerate the gender identity of the performer’s opposite sex.”

Ohio House of Representatives passes vile anti-drag/anti-trans bill HB249.

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Dragscrolling

A #PoliCartoon by me and @nadinescholtes. I LOVE the expressions Nadine drew here! And the cat!

Transcript, discussion, info about my new collaborator Nadine, can all be found here.

Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:

A new bill in Iowa would make attending drag performances with one’s own kids a felony punishable by up to five years in jail, and it just moved out of an Iowa House of Representatives subcommittee. The language of the bill is so broad that it could include any performance involving a transgender person, even if it’s not a drag performance, opponents argue.

House Study Bill 158 would make it illegal to take a minor to a drag performance, even if that performance is family-friendly. Parents could be charged with a class D felony if they take their kids to a drag story hour, and businesses could be fined $10,000 for allowing minors to attend such a performance. The bill isn’t about lewd drag performances; it’s about any performance where a performer wears “clothing, makeup, accessories or other gender signifiers” that are “different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth.” The bill says this applies to any show that includes singing, dancing, reading, or performing “before an audience for entertainment.” Maxwell Mowitz of the LGBTQ+ organization One Iowa told the subcommittee that the bill could make it illegal for people to bring children to hear him speak because he’s transgender, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “I’m a transgender person,” he said. “I was assigned female at birth, but I dress and live as a masculine person. So this bill targets me. This bill also defines performance as reading: Today, I’m reading testimony in front of a group of people, from the perspective of a trans person.” “It seems to me that the language of this bill could be bent to make it illegal for a minor to attend an event in which I am speaking, including this very subcommittee, simply because I live ‘in drag,’ as a different gender than the sex that I was assigned at birth, which is drag according to this legislation.” He said that this could affect whether kids are allowed to see artworks that involve cross-dressing, including movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Mulan and plays like Twelfth Night.

This is anti-drag extremism: Iowa HSB158 is a bill that punishes adults attending drag performances with one’s own kids a felony punishable by up to five years in jail.

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Arin Waller at LGBTQ Nation:

A PBS-affiliated television station in New York has scrubbed its archives of at least three educational programs concerning transgender identities and drag expression. This comes during a time when President Donald Trump is targeting news stations — particularly PBS, NPR, and ABC News — for their allegedly biased criticism of him. Around March, the New York PBS station became the subject of ire from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of a subcommittee meeting on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), where she accused NPR and PBS of turning children transgender using American tax dollars. “I’m looking forward to holding the hearing tomorrow at 10 a.m. where we will be shining an intense spotlight on how Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars have been used by PBS and NPR, and the type of public broadcasting programs and radio shows they have been pushing across the country for decades,” she said on NewsMax around the time.

[...] New York affiliated station WNET, which produces Let’s Learn, had defended the episode around its initial release, explaining to Fox News that Let’s Learn “strives to incorporate themes that explore diversity and promote inclusivity, which are relevant to education and society. Drag is a performance art that can inspire creative thinking and the questioning of stereotypes.” However, recently, WNET rescinded its support and removed the episode across all its platforms. Additionally, they erased two other episodes about a children’s book featuring a trans protagonist, the Intercept reported. The Trump administration has continued an aggressive campaign against news and public media, dating back to December when then-President-Elect Trump sued ABC News for reporting that he was found liable of sexual assault in 2023. Despite being a cut-and-dry case with ABC being able to easily prove their claim as factual, they refused to fight the case and instead settled with Trump for $15 million.

[...] As the Trump administration intensifies its attacks, PBS has bent the knee in another way to dampen potential blowback by removing a scene in an Art Spiegelman documentary in which the graphic novelist Spiegelman discusses an anti-Trump cartoon. PBS also pulled a gaming documentary with trans themes, only to relist it after The Atlantic asked about its deletion.

This is insanity: PBS and its New York member station WNET caved to the anti-drag/anti-trans extremists such as whiny heifer MTG by removing drag content from Let’s Learn and also erased at least two other Let’s Learn episodes because it featured a trans protagonist.

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S. Baum at Erin In The Morning:

Florida man and Attorney General James Uthmeier is using every legal weapon in his arsenal to crack down on queer life. But he’s faced a setback—Floridians are resisting. Uthmeier has pounced on the Kilted Mermaid, a gay-friendly bar in the small(ish) town of Vero Beach, off of Florida’s East Coast. The beloved community establishment routinely hosts drag events, some of which are family-friendly and others that are restricted to adult audiences. Because one of the events hosted during Pride was advertised as “all ages welcome” on social media, Uthmeier “opened an investigation into this sexualized performance to determine the extent of the content and exposure to children,” a press release from his office said.

Uthmeier said Kilted Mermaid violated “the innocence of children” with “perversions” by allowing them to be in the presence of drag queens, and he subpoenaed the venue for a list of performers and guests that night, as well as surveillance footage. Conservatives called for the owner—who is also the town’s Vice Mayor, Linda Moore—to resign. Moore told reporters she won’t resign and plans to continue hosting queer events. Earlier this week, despite state repression, the Kilted Mermaid hosted Drag Queen Bingo. "We have no intention of cancelling," Moore said on July 23. "It's out of the question."

This has outraged Jennifer Pippin, the county’s chair of Moms for Liberty, who told NBC News that she had submitted the “all ages” event flyer to the AG. She said she didn’t know the state’s anti-drag law had already been blocked when she filed her report, but that Uthmeier’s office assured other state laws could be used to prosecute the venue. Neither Pippin nor her children were at the event, nor were they personally solicited for the event, as far as public reports indicate. But the legal repercussions, including the subpoena, signal a dangerous game that the Governor and AG are playing. “To be clear: no one has been charged with a crime,” writes Rindala Alajaji of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “His office is now fishing for personal data about everyone who attended or performed at the event. This should set off every civil liberties alarm bell we have.”

[...] There is zero publicly reported evidence to suggest children were present for the adults-only segment of the show. But even if there were, the basis of Uthmeier’s hostile expedition into drag bars is built on faulty ground. The law that the bar allegedly violated, “Protection of Children Act,” was blocked by federal courts because it was deemed “overbroad” after another drag venue, Hamburger Mary’s, sued the state over the provision. The law threatened to impose fines on, revoke the liquor license of, and/or press a misdemeanor charge against any person or entity that allows “children” to attend an event “in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts [...] lewd conduct.” [...] The Sunshine State has become synonymous with some of the country’s most insidious anti-LGBT and authoritarian policies in recent years—from “Don’t Say Gay” to the Governor’s fraternization with authoritarian, anti-trans demagogues both domestically and overseas. He even met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who recently moved to ban any LGBT Pride festivities in the country.

Florida AG James Uthmeier (R) files a frivolous subpoena of the Kilted Mermaid venue in Vero Beach, FL by demanding a list of performers who performed that night and guests who attended a drag show being advertised as “all ages welcome”.

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

A completed draft Texas Republican Party platform refers to homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” gender-affirming care as “child abuse,” and Drag Queen Story Hour as “predatory sexual behavior.” The platform has been voted on by state party delegates and will be formally adopted on Wednesday after a final vote count. The list of state party priorities calls for an end to legal same-sex marriages, same-sex parenting, all LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination laws, all transgender rights — including gender-affirming care for children and adults — a ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools and libraries, the defunding of all diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and legal protections for anyone who discriminates against queer people based on “religious or moral beliefs.”

Furthermore, the Texas GOP platform calls for a complete end to all of the following: pornography, federal welfare programs, minimum wage laws, mandatory sick or family leave policies, net neutrality, removal of Confederate monuments, pro-immigrant sanctuary cities, public education of undocumented children, no-fault divorce, non-abstinence sex education, abortion, birthright citizenship, professorial tenure in colleges and universities, cannabis legalization, anti-climate change legislation, contact tracing for the tracking of communicable diseases, federal regulations ensuring safe farm food production, and U.S. participation in the United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The platform also calls for fertilized human egg cells to be legally recognized as people, the passage of a “state electoral college-style” law that would make it nearly impossible for Democrats to win statewide office, a ballot measure for Texas to secede from the United States, the invalidation of all federal laws not approved of by county sheriffs, and for Christianity to be inserted into public schools and government buildings.

[...] “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” it continues. “No one should be granted special legal status based on their LGBTQ+ identification…. We are opposed to same-sex parenting, intentionally subjecting a child to the loss of their biological father or mother, and other non-traditional definitions of family.” “We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity,” it adds. “There shall be no attempt to engage in so-called ‘gender affirming’ medical or mental health intervention for persons between the ages of 18 and 26,” including the use of names and pronouns associated with trans people’s genders. The platform would require health insurance companies covering gender-affirming care to also fully fund de-transitional procedures. The platform says that any professionals who aid a minor’s gender transition in any way should face professional, civil, and criminal penalties, as well as lawsuits from anyone affected by their behavior. Furthermore, it calls for all gender-segregated facilities in prisons, schools, and government buildings to only be accessible to people based on their biological sex assigned at birth.

[...] It also calls for laws prohibiting the exposure of minors to “social transitioning” (that is, exploration of a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth), “predatory sexual behaviors” like Drag Queen Story Hour, and “the desensitization of children to sexual topics.”

The Texas GOP's platform reaffirms and expands its war on LGBTQ+ Texans, such as including anti-LGBTQ+, anti-trans, and anti-drag planks like baselessly calling Drag Queen Story Hours "predatory sexual behaviors" and gender-affirming care "child abuse".

Annelise Hanshaw at Missouri Independent:

For the third year in a row, Missouri Republicans are trying to place restrictions on drag performances. The effort has stalled in years past, clearing a House committee last year but never coming up for debate in the Senate. That changed Wednesday, when a Senate committee held a public hearing on legislation sponsored by state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, that he argued was “geared towards protecting children from displays of sexual content.” The bill would make it a class-A misdemeanor to participate in an “adult cabaret performance” in a public area or other space where children might see. A repeat violation becomes a class-E felony. State Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance who chairs the Senate’s judiciary committee, discussed possible fixes to the bill’s definitions following opponent’s testifying that community theater could be impacted. The issue is a definition of “adult cabaret performance” that includes “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest or similar entertainers.”  Including “or similar entertainers,” opponents said, is too vague and may draw police to plays where women play male roles or a non-sexual performance by a transgender person.

Missouri’s at it again with their insane bill proposal (SB295) to ban family-friendly drag shows on the false basis of “protecting the innocence of children.”

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John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

President Donald Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social on Friday, February 7, to announce plans to fire members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and install himself as chairman. Then, on Monday, he named Richard Grenell – an out gay man currently serving in the newly created role of “Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions” – as the interim head of the Kennedy Center. He promised that Grenell’s leadership would lead to “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” In his Friday post, Trump said that current chair David M. Rubenstein and the unnamed board members “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture” and appeared to cite recent drag programming as the reason behind the move. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” Trump’s post read. As NPR notes, the Kennedy Center hosted several drag brunches at its rooftop restaurant last year as well as a free Drag Salute to Divas event at its Millennium stage and a production of drag performer Kris Andersson’s solo show Dixie’s Tupperware Party — all of which were reportedly aimed at adults. But according to them, the center also hosted “Dragtastic Dress-up,” which invited “LGBTQ+ youth under 18 and their parents/caregivers” to “learn the history of drag” and watch “incredible performers strut their stuff.” In recent years, Republicans have stoked a moral panic around drag story hour events as well as all-ages drag brunches and Pride festival performances, falsely characterizing all drag as “sexually explicit” and accusing performers and parents who take their children to such events of “grooming.” [...] On Monday, Trump posted to Truth Social that he is naming Grenell as interim executive director of the Kennedy Center. “I am pleased to announce that Ric Grenell will serve as the Interim Executive Director of The Kennedy Center. Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!” he wrote. In a statement responding to Trump’s announcement, Qommittee, a national network of drag artists and allies, accused the president of targeting drag performers “because we’re LGBTQ+. Period.”

Donald Trump taps quisling gay man and MAGA zealot Richard Grenell to be the Kennedy Center’s interim head.

Trump’s Kennedy Center purge was fueled by anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ+ extremist prejudice.

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