Tag: drag performers

Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed four bills Friday designed to target “drag” shows and performers.

“Intolerance has no place in Arizona despite the Legislature’s frequent attempts to pass legislation that says otherwise,” the governor said in a single veto message on all four.

She said the four bills “are attempts to criminalized free expression and ostracize the LGBTQIA+ community both implicitly and explicitly, creating statutory language that could be weaponized by those who choose hate over acceptance.” And that, said Hobbs, won’t pass her desk.

“I have made it abundantly clear that I am committed to building an Arizona for everyone and will not support any legislation that attempts to marginalize our fellow Arizonans,” the governor said.

Only one of the measures specifically mentions “drag shows.” SB 1026, sponsored by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, barred the use of public moneys or the use of state-funded institutions for a “drag show targeting minors.”

It defined that as any adult performers dressing in clothing and makeup of the opposite sex to exaggerate “gender signifiers and roles” and engage in singing, dancing or a monologue or skit to entertain a target audience under 18.

The breadth of that bothered Sen. Priya Sundareshan.

“This could include all sorts of beloved childhood movies and productions like ‘Mulan’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ any other popular show that includes people dressing in clothing of the opposite gender,” said the Tucson Democrat.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein said it would preclude her from dressing up as Thomas Jefferson to read the Bill of Rights to a group of children at a school or municipal event.

Three other measures took different approaches in what proponents said where efforts to protect children from “sexually explicit performances.”

Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, the sponsor of two of the measures, insisted he was not trying to limit what is available to adults. In fact, he stripped the words “drag shows” from his bills in an effort to show this was not about targeting transgender individuals.

But there already are laws keeping children out of adult-oriented businesses. And supporters made it clear that, with or without those words, the measures were aimed at those performing in drag.

“We all know what we’re talking about here,” said Senate President Warren Petersen.

“We’re talking about men wearing bikinis, dancing weird, sexually, strangely in front of children,” said the Gilbert Republican. “I imagine everyone’s seen the videos.”

Some of those videos available on social media show performances by men in drag with children in the audience

“Folks, if you’ve seen it, you know this stuff is gross, it’s disgusting, it’s perverse,” Petersen said. “And that’s what we’re talking about here.”

Sen. Anna Hernandez said there’s a big problem with expanding existing law that already govern not just who can view an adult-oriented performance but also protect minors from exposure to nudity and sex acts. What’s in these bills, said the Phoenix Democrat, is an expanded definition that could make criminals out of people performing activities that are now legal, even with children present.

She said it would have been one thing had the proponents sought to regulate obscene performances and access by minors. That, Hernandez said, would be a better and clearer test because courts have defined that to be materials that are not only “patently offensive” but that, when taken as a whole, lacks any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

“The worry is that the language of this bill will be perverted in order to continue to be applied to drag shows because drag shows often focus on over-the-top humor, sometimes sexual in nature, and it may be offensive to some individuals that hear it,” she said.

But Sen. Justine Wadsack, the author of one of the bills and a supporter of all four, had a different take.

“We have absolute evidence that these drag performers are targeting to perform in front of children,” the Tucson Republican senator said during debate on the measures. And Wadsack said what they are doing itself is evidence of that targeting.

“Why, why do grown men want to dress up as women and read to young children?” she asked. “Why not just dress in jeans and a T-shirt and read to the children?”

What it is all about, Wadsack said, is “sexually grooming our children.”

But one of the measures sponsored by Kern had absolutely nothing to do with children.

SB 1030 would have required counties to adopt specific zoning ordinances for businesses that conduct “sexually explicit performances.”

“My intent of this bill is to regulate sexually explicit drag shows,” he said But he said other drag shows could remain.

“As we all know, drag shows have been around as long as human beings have been around,” Kern said during debate.

“Although I’ve never been to one, I have watched the movie ‘Tootsie’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,” he said. “And I’ve enjoyed them.”

What’s behind this, Kern said, is protecting children from what the law would define as sexually explicit drag shows.

“Why a parent would even want to bring a child to one of these shows is beyond me,” he said.

Only thing is, his SB 1030 makes no mention of minors.

Instead, its provisions would regulate the location of any of what Kern sought to describe as sexually explicit performances. And that specifically included anything with an “intention to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interest.”

Sundareshan, however, called that particularly vague, saying what can arouse varies from person to person.

Kern’s 1028 took a different approach, seeking to bar “sexually explicit performances” on public property or anywhere the person knows or has reason to know it could be viewed by a minor. And it used the same definition of that phrase as the other measure about intent to arouse.

SB 1698, sponsored by Wadsack, also focused on minors. It sought to create a new felony of “unlawful exposure to an adult oriented performance.”

As originally crafted, the measure specifically included drag shows. But she agreed to remove it, instead making it a crime to bring a child into an adult-oriented business.

Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, said that made the bill “much better.” But she said what remains still had “some pretty serious implications,” including that felony conviction.

“And this violation would apply to a parent or anyone else who brings a minor to any adult-oriented business,” Marsh said. And that same penalty would apply to the performer who would have to figure out if there was someone under 18 in the audience.

Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, said he sees a bigger problem with all of the measures – whether any of the bills use the words “drag shows” or not. He said the intent is clear.

“These attacks on drag performances and the trans community are a slippery slope toward authoritarian rule,” he said. “It should concern everyone when anyone becomes the punching bag of an ideology.”

And Mendez said that efforts like this won’t make transgender people disappear.

“This community will not back down from these kinds of attacks,” he said.