The bill is co-sponsored by several Republicans, including three from Butler County: Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester Twp., and Hall.
Drag performances in Ohio could be banned from public parks, parades and other places children might be if a bill introduced by House Republicans becomes law.
House Bill 245 expands the definition of adult cabaret performers from strippers and topless dancers to include “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth.”
A change that would restrict certain drag events to bars and other spaces where minors are prohibited.
“It doesn’t mean all performances,” Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, said. “A man dressed as a woman reading a book is constitutionally protected speech. But I’ve seen videos of performances here in the state of Ohio and across the nation that are improper to be done in the presence of minors.”
Drag queens and kings would face charges if local prosecutors decided their performances were obscene or harmful to juveniles as defined by Ohio law.
Obscene performances are defined as those where the show’s “dominant” or primary purpose is to arouse lust by depicting sexual activity, sexual excitement or nudity. And if a drag queen or king were convicted under HB 245, they would be facing a first-degree misdemeanor at minimum.
If a minor saw their show, the performer could face a first-degree misdemeanor. If the performance was deemed obscene, the charge would be a fifth-degree felony.
If a minor younger than 13 was at an obscene performance, that charge would climb to a fourth-degree felony, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 18 months.
“We had to draw a line somewhere,” Hall said.
Middletown has found itself in the center of the drag show debate. When the annual Pride event was held June 23 in downtown Middletown, part of the festivities included a drag show on Governor’s Square. About half of the audience were minors, according to those there. Some of the children were seen handing the performers money.
After pictures of the performers were posted on social media, nine pro-LGBTQ residents spoke at a July 5 City Council in favor of the dancers. Then on Tuesday, Candice Keller, executive director of the Community Pregnancy Center and former state representative, was critical of the city’s and council’s response to the event.
Williams said that delineation strikes a balance between free speech and protecting Ohio’s children, but opponents say current obscenity laws already cover his concerns and singling out LGBTQ performers in this way perpetuates stereotypes about gay people being inherently dangerous to children.
What is an obscene performance?
Performing in drag was popular during the Shakespearean era (late 1500s) when women weren’t allowed to act on stage. A handful of drag queens like Dame Edna Everage achieved notoriety in the centuries since, but it wasn’t until the Emmy Award-winning show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” launched in 2009 that drag culture really entered the modern mainstream.
Drag queen story hour was created in 2015, and the backlash against the concept soon followed.
Conservative writers and pundits called these events inappropriate at best, claiming their not-so-hidden purpose is to sexually groom children. And while Williams was clear that not all drag is inherently obscene, he believes there are performers who behave inappropriately.
That’s why he and 42 other Republicans think HB 245 is necessary. Williams said it will “put the power and the discretion in the hands of law enforcement officials” to decide whether individual shows or events were “harmful to juveniles.”
A charge that can have serious consequences.
Ohio Revised Code defines that harm as “any material or performance describing or representing nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse” where the following conditions are met:
- Appeals to the “prurient” or excessive interest of juveniles in sex.
- Offensive to “prevailing standards in the adult community” about what is suitable for children.
- Lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value for children.
What’s happening in other states?
Ohio isn’t the first state to consider a ban on public drag performances. Lawmakers in at least eight other states have introduced similar legislation.
Tennessee Republicans banned public drag performances in March, but a U.S. district judge overturned it in June, saying the law violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Williams, who is an attorney himself, said he crafted his legislation with that in mind, “This is the most narrowly tailored bill on this subject matter in the nation.”
LGBTQ groups don’t see it that way, saying HB 245 is “censorship over safety.”
“There have been multiple documented incidents of self-identified Nazis showing up to performances in Ohio in the past nine months. The Department of Homeland Security has sent out multiple alerts indicating the growing threat of hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people,” Equality Ohio policy director Maria Bruno said in a statement. “Yet instead of addressing guns, targeted intimidation, or any of the escalations of violence that we are seeing in our communities, Ohio’s statehouse politicians instead have chosen to broadly criminalize performing arts.”
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